


Time Trial

by echotoast (CanineCaptivated)



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Other, i'll add some more characters as they appear, the same goes for relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-12
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2018-02-25 02:33:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2605406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanineCaptivated/pseuds/echotoast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite all her best attempts, the tricolored girl before Ruby remained unscathed. There was an eerie sort of perfection about her, down to the way her hair fell to the way she’d tilted her head just slightly to the right and grinned like the Cheshire cat. Before Ruby could determine what it was that created this effect, she grew dizzy, and dropped to the floor.<br/>Neo walked towards her at a leisurely pace, and the last thing Ruby saw before she blacked out was her, raising a lone finger to her lips, still grinning as the silence she requested fell over the room.<br/>-------<br/>Ruby’s been kidnapped, and her captors have announced a time limit: Yang, Blake, Weiss and everyone else back at Beacon all have precisely five days to find and save her, or it’s lights out for their little Rose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

This had been going on for an hour now.

Time after time Ruby struck out at the girl, and time after time she dodged it with ease. Yang had warned her about a tough opponent, but she had never imagined it being _this_ hard.

Ruby was breathing heavily by this point – as legendary as her stamina was, an hour was an hour, and she was wearing out fast. Her opponent - she remembered Roman called her Neo, once? - seemed no worse for wear, but Ruby was pretty sure she’d slowed down as well. She could at least cling to that hope, and the fact that she was still relatively unharmed. Ruby was suffering some minor injuries, but she'd avoided the worst of Neo's attacks.

But still...

This was supposed to be an easy mission. A snap, Yang had said.

The idea behind it was simple : slip into the warehouse Roman had been spotted in, get some info, slip back out and go get an ice cream or some other corny, unnecessary celebration she’d come up with to celebrate their ‘victory’.

‘ _Hopefully it’s going better for everyone else.’_ Ruby thought to herself, trying to stay optimistic. She herself had been spotted sneaking around by the girl she was currently fighting, and it’d be safe to say things weren’t going too well.

Maybe now would be a good time to make a break for it.

Wincing as the Neo took another swing at her with the business end of the parasol, Ruby slid to the side and evaded the brunt of the hit. The sting in her shoulder let her know she hadn’t avoided all of it, though.

She quickly activated her semblance and dashed for the nearest door, nearly slamming into it in her haste to get it opened. When she tried the handle, it was locked. Ruby bit her lip and looked around for some other exit – maybe that window could work? But how would she get to it? Maybe if she used a crate or something as her vantage point she could jump?

Before she got the chance to try it, she felt the rushing of air and quickly jerked out of the way of another strike from the girl.

“Oh, right…don’t take your eyes off your opponent, Ruby…” She muttered to herself, once she had retreated a safe distance from the tricolored menace.

The opponent in question grinned widely and held a finger out as if to scold Ruby, wagging it back and forth. Ruby frowned at this, and Neo reached into a pocket to pull out a key - presumably one that would open the door – and hold it up for her to see before putting it back.

“Is that – is that a challenge?” Ruby asked, only unsure for a moment. Of course it was a challenge, what else would it be?

Confirming her thoughts, Neo nodded, keeping her ever-present grin in place.

For some reason Ruby felt the need to nod back, before she rushed her with Crescent Rose for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. As usual, the girl slipped out of the way of her scythe’s wide arc with ease, even going as far as to feign a yawn before retaliating with her parasol.

Frustrated, Ruby tried her spin attack, holding Crescent Rose out and spinning around wildly like a top in hopes that her weapon would hit _something._

Needless to say, it failed. Neo had once again avoided it, and this time was waiting and ready to slam Ruby upside the head with her parasol. She let out a brief cry before jumping back, trying to flee the follow-up hit.

It clipped her arm, and she grated her teeth but kept moving out of the way until she felt she was a safe distance from her enemy once again.

Huffing and trying to regain her breath, Ruby raised her good arm to wipe the area under her nose clean of blood and try to examine her situation again.

….There was no way she was getting that key.

Despite all her best attempts, the tricolored girl before Ruby remained unscathed. There was an eerie sort of perfection about her – down to the way her hair fell to the way she’d tilted her head just slightly and grinned like the Cheshire cat. Before Ruby could determine what it was that created this effect, she grew dizzy, and dropped to the floor.

The exhaustion must’ve finally caught up to her, that or the blow to the head did.

Neo walked towards her at a leisurely pace, and the last thing Ruby saw before she blacked out was her, raising a lone finger to her lips, still grinning as the silence she requested fell over the room.

\---------

“So what do we do now? Shoot her?” Roman asked incredulously, after Neo had dragged her capture into the more formal base of operations.

Her boss was the first to question Neo’s bringing her there, and she tried to sign her response, but he held up a hand to stop her. “Look, if I told you once I’ve told you too many times, I’m not bothering to learn your finger gibberish. Write it down or something.”

Neo scowled at the man and huffed loudly, crossing her arms. Fine, he could figure it out himself.

Evidently he wasn’t in the mood to play charades, so Roman raised his cane to just off the girl – Neo was pretty sure she’d heard one of the other ones call her Ruby? – and be done with it.

Well, that wouldn’t do.

She stepped in the way and shook her head disapprovingly. She had things to do with this one before anyone killed her – could Roman seriously not see a good piece of blackmail when he saw one?

From what Neo knew, this girl was the leader, and apparently a prodigy to boot, if she got accepted into Beacon so early. They could easily use her as a bargaining chip, or just plain hold her hostage for the sake of intimidation.

Roman grumbled something under his breath and skulked out of the room. “Cinder!” He called, like a child tattling on their sibling, “Get her to move out of the way, or see what she wants or whatever, would you?”

After a moment, Cinder sauntered into the room – Cinder never walked places, Neo had decided, Cinder was always swaying like she was on some kind of runway, so she was always sauntering – with Emerald and Mercury in tow.

She eyed Ruby on the floor distastefully, and then looked to Neo. “When did you get a hostage?”

‘ _Just now.’_ She signed quickly. Everyone looked to Mercury – he was the only one who’d bothered to learn sign language. Unfortunately he was also one of Neo’s least favorite people there, but beggars can’t be choosers, can they?

He heaved a deep sigh, mumbling something about not getting paid enough to be a portable translator. “Just now, apparently.”

Cinder nodded. “Obviously. What do you want with the kid if you’re not killing her?” She asked dubiously. “I doubt she’d be very willing to help our cause.”

Neo shook her head and faced Mercury again to sign a response. ‘ _You idiots really need to learn the value of a hostage. We can use her to scare them. Or for blackmail.’_ She had to slow down a few times to make sure Mercury got it all, but eventually he did, nodding and making his usual self-satisfied smirk.

“She’s clever. We have a hostage now, and plenty of ways to exploit that fact. They’ll be willing to do a lot to retrieve her, not to mention her team will probably break down while she’s away – it’s a good plan.” He said decidedly.

While Neo was irritated that he hadn’t bothered to translate exactly – he never did – she was still pleased with herself, and allowed herself a little gloating as Cinder smiled and silently approved of the plan.

“That sounds…perfect.” The woman said decidedly. “ Since Neo captured her, she’s in charge of handling the brat, and, Emerald, Mercury – you two help her announce her capture. I’ll be back upstairs if there are no more…” - she glared at Roman – “…disturbances.”

Emerald nodded, though she cast a scathing look at Neo shortly after. Neo tried not to laugh. Emerald always wanted to be Cinder’s favorite, so seeing someone else get praise must’ve pissed her off a little.

Mercury seemed indifferent to the assignment, and Roman made some sarcastic remark about ‘no respect’ before skulking off to boss the White Fang grunts around some more.

Well, they’d better get started.

Neo glanced down at the captive and smiled. She could have some fun with her job.

\------------

A grave silence had settled over the remainders of team RWBY back on their way to the dorm at Beacon.

Weiss was the only one to attempt to break it. “…Look, we had to leave if we were going to report this to actual hunters and huntresses, and you know it. Ruby will be fine, right?”

Yang refused to acknowledge Weiss’ statement, but her face soured a little at the mention of what had just happened.

They left. Without. Her sister.

Weiss had convinced Blake that it was necessary, and in turn Blake had talked down her partner until, suddenly, all three of them were heading back to Beacon with no leader and no important information to show for their mission, either.

But most importantly, no leader.

“We waited two hours. If she could’ve gotten out on her own, she would’ve. So going and getting more experienced people to help her out is the best plan – even if it feels shitty.” Blake reasoned, nudging Yang a bit at the last statement. “The professors will know what to do.”

“They’d better.” She retorted harshly. Blake and Weiss both took a step back, and silence settled over the group again.

They walked down towards their dorm room first to grab some things, but Blake spotted something in front of the door and rushed past her teammates to inspect it.

Crescent Rose sat there, folded up, and on top of it was a small memory chip. Blake grabbed it and clipped it into her scroll quickly, as Yang and Weiss jogged over to investigate as well. She held it out so they could see too just as a video had started to display on the screen, and they all watched with interest.

It displayed an image of Ruby, blindfolded and stirring around as if just waking up. A tricolored girl they recognized as Neo walked in and stood next to her, grinning sickly sweet. She held up a card, and whoever was filming zoomed in on it dramatically. It read, “Missing something?” with alternating colors, the same three Neo was wearing. The i’s had been dotted with hearts and Neo looked pretty smug about holding it up.

“Stop dicking around and get to the point.” A male voice from behind the camera came in, and a hand covered the lens before he went on. “You’ve got five days. I think you can figure out what happens if you don’t get here before then. We’ll be leaving little updates on the brat every now and then, for however long it takes you to do anything. ” He said in a monotonous voice, before a girl chimed in.

“This’ll teach you to nose around in our business, hopefully. Talk to you later!” The hand was removed from the lens and Ruby was back in view, now sitting up and trying to look around.

“…Where..?”

The video went out with a resounding ‘click’.

If at all possible, Weiss paled, and Blake grimaced. Yang just stared at the scroll like she didn’t know what to feel.

There was yet another brief, stunned silence. Yang broke it, gripping the scroll like she was tempted to rip it in half.

“Get the teachers. Right now.”

There was something about the strained tone in her voice that made Blake and Weiss feel that stalling or arguing would be a mistake. They rushed off to locate a teacher.

- **Day one: hour zero** -

- **Time remaining: 120 hours -**


	2. Chapter 2

- **Day one: Hour one –**

**-Time remaining: 119 hours –**

"There, we delivered the video. I still don't see why you didn't have us make any demands in it, though." Mercury was reporting back to Neo, who just nodded.

' _Don't worry. I made a plan.'_ She signed, and he just shrugged.

"Whatever you don't say, Neo."

He seemed slightly proud of himself for that not-so-sly dig at her, and she just deadpanned at him until he left the room.

Whatever, she had more important things to do. The timer had started when she had Mercury and Emerald drop off the scythe and that video, so she didn't have much time to waste vacating the area.

As if the universe had read her mind, Roman chose this time to check in. "Hey, you coming or what? We don't have all day."

She smiled and nodded, walking towards the doorway slowly, deliberately. Roman groaned and headed back where he was needed, convinced she was just trying to be a smart aleck.

He never noticed the notecard she'd dropped behind herself.

- **Day one: hour one** -

- **Time remaining: 119 hours -**

"What the helldo you meanwe 'can't go on the mission' _?!"_ Yang demanded, slamming her hands down on the desk.

To his credit, Ozpin did a good job appearing unfazed by the angry blonde. He explained again what he had told them when they asked what they should do first. "I understand that you feel it's your duty to look for her, but I just _can't let_ a bunch of first year students charge into a hostage situation. And for that I'm deeply sorry." He took a long sip of his coffee. "I'll send a team of upperclassmen to scout, and if they fail to come back with anything, a fully trained hunter will be sent to retrieve Ruby. That is all I can do for you."

He stood from his desk and motioned to Glynda to do something, probably dismiss the remainder of team RWBY, while he dug around some files.

While Weiss focused on keeping Yang from breaking something, Blake took on a thoughtful expression. "Professor, before we go, I was just curious – what team do you think you'll be sending to scout?"

"Hmm…team CFVY has interacted with your team more than any of the other upperclassmen, so they should be good match. They'll also be instructed to keep you updated on the mission, don't worry. Is that all?" He replied idly, still trying to find some file or other.

Blake nodded. "..Yes, that was all. Thank you."

Glynda was oddly silent as she led them out of the office and back to the hall, as was everyone else, but she spoke up just as they were sent down the elevator. "Oh, and, you three – I'll see you in class tomorrow. Try not to be late." The doors slid closed.

"Pffft. As if anyone would dare be late to her class. They'd get detention until the next ice age rolled around." Weiss scoffed, then looked over to the other occupants of the elevator and noted their expressions.

Yang seemed to be too busy brooding to appreciate the slight humor, and Blake was once again thinking of something else. "Now that you mention it…that is weird." She muttered.

Weiss shrugged. "Not really, she's a pretty strict teacher. Though I was exaggerating for comedic effe-"

"No, not that." Blake cut in. "She never reminds people not to be late, we all _know_ that's a terrible idea. Maybe she wants us to come in early so she can say something?" she mused.

"Or maybe she wants us to cut and go look for Ruby!" Yang said suddenly, startling the other two in the elevator.

Weiss frowned. "I don't think a professor would encourage that, much less professor Goodwitch. Maybe she _will_ have something to say to us before class though. "

"I don't care!" The blonde was shouting again, "We need to find Ruby as soon as possible and since we were the last ones at the warehouse, we're the most familiar with it! They left their video at _our_ door, didn't they?!"

"You need to calm down." Blake said pointedly.

"Well you need to f-" The elevator door slid open, and their argument was abruptly brought to a close as they saw curious students in the hall.

They couldn't argue here, they'd have to carry on some other place. Yang stalked off in front of her teammates, who exchanged helpless shrugs.

On the way back to their dorm room, team JNPR intercepted them.

"Heeey guys!" Nora was chipper as always, rushing up along to Yang's side, since the blonde was usually most willing to put up with her shenanigans.

"Hi."

Nora frowned. That was not the response she typically got. The rest of her team was just catching up as she darted around the three members of team RWBY. "You look sad are you sad why are you sad where's Ruby have you guys seen any-"

"Nora. One question at a time." Ren interrupted, pulling her out of her fervor.

She sucked in a deep breath, and exhaled. "..Are you guys okay?" Rather than her usual quick, spitfire questions, Nora asked this one more gently - it had become more obvious to her that the three were not in good moods.

Pyrrha, Ren and Jaune had made their way over to Nora's side by this point, and were all looking at the other three expectantly.

Pyrrha bit her lip upon seeing their expressions. "It wouldn't have anything to do with Ruby's absence, would it?" She asked tentatively.

Once again, Blake and Weiss exchanged glances. They'd been expecting Yang to answer the question, but she was just staring over at them. Blake took that as her cue to explain instead.

"Unfortunately, it has everything to do with that. Here." Blake pulled her scroll out and opened up the saved file of the video and showed it to them.

"Whaaaaaaat?!" Nora was the first to react as the video closed out, grabbing onto the scroll and hitting play again. "Ruby is – what?!"

Ren was watching the video again carefully, like he was trying to figure something out.

"But- but – Ruby's unstoppable!" Jaune sputtered, before Pyrrha brushed past him to stand at the head of their group.

"Can we do anything to help?" She directed the question at Yang.

"Ozpin said first years couldn't go on the mission. They're sending team CFVY instead." She muttered lamely.

Nobody said anything for a moment, but a determined expression came over Nora's face and she hastily whispered some things to Ren. He hummed for a moment after she finished, as if deciding something, before he nodded his agreement to whatever she'd said.

Nora fist pumped. "Alright everyone! You're all in crappy moods and that's a no – go, so may I be the first to propose…" She paused for a second like there was some kind of imaginary drum roll, "A sleepover! Complete with doing stupid things with bottles, closets, and our hair! And I've got _rom coms_!" She crossed her arms, confident that her suggestion would go over well.

It did not.

"Nora, someone is _missing_ and your response is to throw a party? I thought you'd be more sympathetic than that." Weiss commented disdainfully. Blake nodded.

"That is a weird thing to suggest after we tell you we're all not in the best of spirits.."

Sighing, the redhead dragged Weiss and Blake away from Yang, and proceeded to talk loud enough for everyone to hear her anyways. "Look you guys, you're all really sad but Ozpin told you there's nothing you can do about it! Team CFVY is on the job, and you guys aren't, and I get that you're all upset about it, but you'll just be sitting around your dorm feeling sorry for yourselves all night if you keep this up!"

She crossed her arms again, this time taking on a stern tone. "Soooo, as your friend, it's my job to make sure you don't have such a terrible night! And besides, you've seen team CFVY work – Ruby will be back by tomorrow, I'm sure of it!"

Yang made eye contact with Nora. "You're _sure_ , sure?"

Nora nodded enthusiastically. "Absolutely!"

"Besides," Pyrrha cut in, "Even if they don't find her by tomorrow, we will know where she is by the time day five rolls around. That's for certain."

Yang let out a long, prolonged sigh, before finally responding. "Good, then we'll have it when she gets back."

She turned around and made her way back to the dorm to think.

- **Day one: Hour four –**

**-Time remaining: 116 hours –**

Ruby sat up once again, with more urgency.

Last time she'd only been up for a few minutes, and she'd caught what seemed to be the end of some sort of ransom. She was sure it was hers.

But this time, there wasn't any talking. She could only hear the dull thuds created by things slamming into metal, leaving a slight echo.

Putting two and two together, she came to the conclusion that she was in an airship.

They were moving their hideout.

She sucked in a deep breath and tried to think of a way out.

Let's see…she was bound and blindfolded…but not gagged. Maybe she could try and...chew the rope off?

The more she thought about it, the dumber it seemed, but she tried it anyways, steeling herself before trying to tug at the rope around her wrists with her teeth. On her first attempt it tightened, and Ruby let out a short whine, high pitched and sounding more like her dog than a distressed teenager, before she decided to try again.

It hurt her wrists and tasted terrible, but after about fifteen minutes she was sure she was getting somewhere.

Ten minutes later, she let out a short, victorious 'yes!' and pushed her blindfold up. Next stop a way out of this –

Oh, crap. She heard a door opening, and hurriedly pushed her blindfold back down, putting her arms behind her back and tucking the chewed-off rope under there too as she lay down.

"Ugh, guard duty is so boring. Look at her, she isn't even conscious. We really gotta spend four hours in here?"

"Yup."

Oh _come on._

Ruby silently cursed her luck and resigned herself to a lot of waiting.

**-Day one: Hour five –**

**-Time remaining: 115 hours -**

Bumbleby pulled into a stop, and Yang hopped off her motorcycle quickly, only barely remembering to put the goggles back down on it before taking off on foot.

She had a warehouse to investigate.

Just as she'd steeled herself to bust a door open for entry, it was kicked open by someone else: the leader of team CFVY, on her way out. The rest of the team followed her.

Coco stopped in front of Yang. "What, a first year wanted to get in on the action? Sorry kid, but we already cleared the place. It's empty. " Velvet hurried up to Coco and whispered a few things, turning her around to speak quietly. Yatsuhashi stood tall behind the two girls, easily discouraging the blonde from even attempting to listen in on them.

Yang saw a few hand gestures and more whispering before Coco turned back around.

"Alright, alright, I don't wanna be _that_ asshole that doesn't let you investigate a personal thing. 'S just not my style." Coco rummaged around in her bag for something, pulling out a few index cards and handing them to Yang. "Here, we didn't find your sister, but we did find these. You can have a look before my team and I go and investigate them ourselves."

Flipping the cards over, Yang found familiar tricolored writing.

" _Hey idiots. Since I don't feel like waiting for you to stumble into our new place by sheer dumb luck, I'll give you a hint: The mammoth Grimm smell teeeerrriiible...but the plant life smells worse._

…" Rather than writing in that space, there was a small picture of large flowers with little stink lines coming up from them surrounding a lever.

" _See you soon!"_

She frowned at the cards before handing them back to Coco. "So, that means _what_ exactly? Is it a trap?"

Velvet answered this one, shrugging. "That's why we're going to investigate and not you guys. Then if we take too long, one of the hunters at the school will go. You and your team can collect evidence _here_ , sure, but anywhere over there? That's classified. And dangerous. "

The team was already starting to move off, Fox trailing behind Yatsuhashi and both of them behind Coco. Velvet addressed Yang one last time before running off to catch up with her team. "But hey, chin up, we'll bring her back in no time!"

"Probably.." Fox muttered under his breath cynically.

And with this, team CFVY was off.

Yang glanced back at the warehouse. Well, they _did_ say she could investigate here, just not over there…yet. After a moment's thoughts, she rushed back over to her motorcycle and made her way off to Beacon's library.

She had some research to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo....What kind of flowers smell terrible? And just how obvious can Neo get with her hints? Seriously, did she even try to be subtle?  
> Anyways, thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

- **Day one: Hour eight –**

**-Time remaining: 112 hours –**

Ruby all but cheered in her celebration as soon as she heard the glorious, glorious sound of receding footsteps. The guards were leaving, so all she had to do was get out of the room before the next shift came in. She could get out of this storage room, find wherever they were keeping her sweetheart, and blast her way out before the night was done. Ruby gazed affectionately off into space just thinking about her weapon. Hopefully Crescent Rose was in good condition.

Brushing those thoughts aside, Ruby set about untying her ankles before standing up, stretching a bit in hopes of getting rid of at least a few of the kinks in her back from lying on the floor for an undetermined amount of time. She allowed the rope that had previously been around her wrists and the blindfold to drop to the floor.

There didn't seem to be a lot of obvious exits to the expansive room, she noted. One exit was the door her guards had presumably left through, but that would lead into some other place with more people in it, so she opted against trying it.

Another exit was the huge steel hatch, but, unless she planned on skydiving, Ruby felt like trying to open that one would be a poor decision too. That left her with… another door, and an air vent by the first door.

Ruby opted to try the second door first, ducking into the room it led to and closing it as quietly as possible. Dim, flickering fluorescent lighting and a whole lot of the color grey greeted her.

Sheesh, this looked like the set of a black and white detective movie or something. The caped girl deftly picked her way around discarded paperwork and made her way up to the desk in the center of the room.

Amidst the clutter on the desk, there were three things that stood out to her: Notes, scrawled onto the paper in messy cursive that Ruby couldn't possibly decipher, a key, for what she wasn't sure, and lastly, a scroll.

Risking another cautious glance around the room – she hadn't seen anyone in here when she entered but she had to be absolutely _sure_ she was alone – Ruby eyed the objects on the desk and wasted little time in pocketing the key and attempting to read the notes anyways. As she had predicted, they were unreadable for her, but she still thought she saw her name on there once or twice, as well some more important words like 'weapon', 'safekeeping', 'project' and – that word was either 'trade' or 'jade'. Probably the latter, but the fact that she was confused in the first place spoke numbers about the accuracy of her reading. She sighed and put them back where they were, before swiping the scroll off the desk and opening up an emergency call.

Ruby quickly put in Yang's number, fidgeting around anxiously as she awaited a response.

"Hey! You've reached –"

"Really?! An answering machine?!" She hissed, trying her best to keep the volume down. "Ugh, of all the times for her to not...ugh…." Ruby hung up before it got the chance to finish and decided to try again.

Hmm….she couldn't call Weiss, since there was something about her scroll blocking unregistered numbers…. Maybe Blake would answer?

It took her a second to remember the number, but eventually Ruby managed to put that one in and call her up. There was a terse silence. "Please don't be another answering machine please don't be another answering machine please don't be another –"

"Who is calling me at – it's two in the morning, who –" Blake's voice came through the device, sounding groggy and disoriented.

It was the best sound Ruby had ever heard. "Blake! Okay okay so I found this and I need you guys to, uh, I need you to…umm…"

"Ruby?!" She heard some jostling on the other side of the call, as Blake presumably sat up in bed.

Even though she knew Blake wasn't able to see her, Ruby nodded. "Yeah, I'm uh, I'm calling from – I don't know where I am, I think it's an airship? I'm also pretty sure we landed a while ago, but not _where,_ so, um.."

"Look, I need you to listen for a minute. Are there any windows you can see?" Blake asked, her tone even. It did a little to soothe Ruby's nerves, but not a whole lot. She could hear some clamoring in the background of the call.

Ruby took another look around the room, but it was just as windowless as before. "No, no windows."

She thought she heard Blake curse under her breath. "Okay, that's okay, just – hey! Give that b–"

" _Ruby Rose_ , what in the fresh frozen _hell_ are you doing?!" Weiss' voice was coming through the scroll now, and Ruby flinched at the harshness.

"C-calling for help?" She replied uncertainly.

Weiss sighed deeply over the scroll, and Ruby could tell she was doing that thing where she pinched the bridge of her nose and – "Ruby, just, did it ever occur to you that there'll be, oh I don't know, _history of this phone call_?"

"Oh."

"And also, are you staying in one place doing this? You'll get caught for sure if you don't at least _try_ to be sneaky." Somehow even in a crisis Weiss managed to make it sound like she was scolding Ruby.

She shuddered at the mention of getting caught and moved to crack the door open to peek through into the spacious cabin she had been held in previously. "Sorry, sorry I'll see if I can – oh, sh-"

Standing before her was not one, but two people. She recognized Neo, grinning sweetly over at her, and a taller woman with gleaming orange eyes – Ruby froze, then jolted at the realization that she'd seen her before, at Beacon.

The first time, she introduced herself as an exchange student, Cinder….and the second…. "The intruder at the dance…" She mumbled, taking a defensive step back as Cinder moved forward.

"My my, what a naughty girl," She purred, reaching over to grab hold of Ruby's shoulder and direct her line of sight, "Awfully rude of you, giving our guards the slip like that."

"I – I…" Ruby stammered, looking around frantically for an escape. She didn't have Crescent Rose, and she was smart enough to know when she was outmatched. But where could she run?

The scroll, still in her hand, was muffled, but she could still hear Weiss, and shortly afterwards, Blake, on the other end. "..Ruby?! What happened – tell us what… _Ruby_!"

Cinder removed the scroll from Ruby's grip and unceremoniously hung up, before tossing it to the side. It clattered a bit more loudly than expected, in the cavernous space of the ship's storage cabin.

She seemed satisfied, and went back to evaluating Ruby. Neo just watched with interest, occasionally fiddling with her parasol, sheathing and unsheathing the blade hidden in the handle. "Where did the blindfold go? Did you take it off?" She clicked her tongue a few times. "How inconvenient. Maybe we ought to just blind you instead, save some fabric."

Ruby forced herself to take a step backwards, then another. She only managed one more before she backed into the door she'd just come out of. Ruby gazed up at Cinder, and then to Neo standing behind her idly. She swallowed nervously as they advanced.

- **Same Hour-**

Blake watched with interest as Weiss snatched up the scroll and wrote down the number, glancing back and forth from the paper incessantly to make sure it was completely accurate, before handing the scroll to Blake and running about the room putting her outfit on, ranting as she did so.

"I cannot _believe_ she didn't consider –" Weiss yanked a drawer open and pulled her jacket and skirt out, "- that there might be evidence of the call! Of all the _irresponsible, useless_ things she has ever done –" She moved into the bathroom and began changing out of her nightgown into her day clothes, "- _this_ has got to be the most ridiculous, imprudent, stupid mess she has ever gotten herself into! She's so irresponsible, too! She's just such a – argh, she's such a _kid_!" She huffed and threw the bathroom door open, adjusting her jacket.

"Where are you off to?" Blake asked cautiously, still trying to figure out the white-themed girl's angle.

Weiss huffed and crossed her arms. "To find her, of course." She said it bluntly, like suggesting she was going to do anything else was ridiculous. "Are you coming or what? We have to go _somewhere_ if we're going to try and trace the call."

"Right," Blake said quickly, jumping off the bed and quickly gathering up her clothing to get changed. "But, what about Yang? She's still not back." She reminded her, as she ducked into the bathroom to get changed.

"If she was too irresponsible to get back here before –" She glanced at a clock, "Two in the morning, then it's her bad. Besides, you know how she is, she's probably already halfway to wherever Ruby is at right now anyways. Without us, I should add!"

"Fair point." Blake agreed, stepping out of the bathroom just as she finished adjusting her bow. "If she isn't, we'll just call her if we find the location. Right?"

Weiss nodded impatiently. "Yeah, yeah, got it, let's go."

The two moved down the hallway and out of the school in relative silence, until they got to Vale and took in the sight of barren streets, completely void of people, and Blake decided to speak up.

"….Where exactly are we going to trace the call from?"

Sucking in some air through her teeth, Weiss took a look around for herself. "That's…that's a good question."

Blake stared at Weiss incredulously. "Seriously?"

She stiffened. "In my defense, it didn't occur to you to stop me and ask until just now!" She exclaimed, then hugged herself nervously. Obviously Weiss was a little on edge.

"Just, forget it. We're here now, so we're going to trace that phone from _somewhere_." Blake said dismissively, taking a moment to think of any way to do so. "Most stores that aren't bars are closed, but bars won't have any technology advanced enough to trace a call…" She muttered, then glanced over at Weiss curiously. "Hey."

"What?" The heiress shot back, still jumpy.

"How many favors do you think you'd have to call on to get us in there, exactly?" Blake asked, her gaze fixed on a tall building not far from where they stood. Weiss followed her line of sight and sighed, pulling out her own scroll.

"Winter is gonna be _pissed._ "

Blake raised an eyebrow, but Weiss never elaborated, having already made the call and waiting with a surprising amount of patience.

After a minute or two, it seemed someone had picked up.

"Hi." Weiss said abruptly. "Yes, I'm well aware of what time it is – no I am _not_ getting – no, no, stop, I'm not doing anything of the sort – Winter can you shut up for ten seconds?!" There was another silence on Weiss' end, and Blake was really wishing she could hear the other side of that conversation, because Weiss flinched hard before trying to continue the conversation in a softer tone.

"Okay, okay. But I need you to do something – no it is not – okay, just, can you unlock the – yes unlock that one, the one in Vale. Yes, I know it's – yes I get the point, but I _really_ need you to – please? Come _on_ , this is important – no I am not calling dad! Just – okay, thank you. Good night." Weiss hung up, and relief flooded her features before she steeled herself again.

"When this is all over with, Ruby is _so_ going to owe me one." She exhaled loudly, and began to lead Blake over to the building.

The black haired girl, too busy trying to piece together the conversation she'd just overheard, said nothing but nodded slightly as she followed her teammate up the cool concrete steps and into the towering building. The interior of the place was just as modernized as she'd expected, and Blake observed it with a keen eye, thinking back to the times when she'd have studied the layout of a place like this so she could slip in and do things she'd rather not admit to, now.

Her attention was brought back to the present when Weiss snapped in her face a few times. "Earth to Blake, are you going to help me trace this scroll's signal or not?"

"Right!" She shook her head, clearing it of the cluttered thoughts. " Sorry. Guess I'm still a little tired."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "No kidding. Hold this for me and I'll try to get the signal back."

Blake checked the monitor they were using for tracing it and grimaced, seeing nothing but a flashing error screen. "This could take a while."

They sighed in unison and tried again.

**-Day one: Hour fourteen –**

**-Time remaining: 106 hours -**

Peering around the corner curiously, Neo noted that the grunt seemed to be done with his job of escorting, and Ruby was left unattended in her makeshift 'cell' – it was really just an empty room on the ship. They thought about moving her into the actual base while she was passed out, but inside an airship and then in an underground loading bay already seemed like the best hiding spot they could hope to have.

Well, it would be if she hadn't already tried spoiling it, anyways.

Neo snickered and let herself into the room containing her very own captive, who was, at the moment, groaning and holding a hand to the side of her face. The tricolored girl knelt down and unceremoniously moved Ruby's hand, investigating the damage for herself. Hm. Not too bad. But still, it wouldn't do.

Cinder had already gotten the footage she needed and written the letter she planned to send, so day two's video was prepared and waiting.

A little investment wouldn't hurt anyone.

The short girl quickly retreated from the room, remembering to lock the door behind herself, and then reentered with a small box, tossing it to Ruby – well, more like throwing it at her, but the effect was the same.

It popped open to reveal a lunch that Neo had fixed up herself: ice cream and a sandwich. Ruby raised an eyebrow at her, and looked at the food suspiciously. "What'd you do to it?"

Neo shook her head and gestured to the food.

"No? What, so you expect me to believe you didn't do _anything_ to this food?"

The tricolored girl sighed dramatically and picked up the sandwich, taking a decent sized bite out of it before dropping it back in front of Ruby, who flinched. "Okay, got it. Jeez." The younger girl ate cautiously, constantly glancing up at Neo like she expected her to take it back without warning. It was almost endearing.

After a short while of idly watching Ruby and waiting for her to finish, Neo pushed the box out of the way and handed her a glass of water. Complete with some sleeping pills, though that fact was unknown to the captive, who eyed the other girl nervously for the umpteenth time that evening before drinking some. It didn't take more than three minutes to take effect.

Not to brag or anything, but she was pretty sure she had this whole caretaking thing down. Neo blew her a kiss goodnight as she left the room.

**-Day two: Hour zero –**

**-Time Remaining: 96 Hours-**

The three other members of team RWBY lay about in their dorm, taking turns between sleeping and working on figuring out where the place they were looking for might be. Weiss and Blake had recovered a little information about where the scroll had been, or at least it's range, and Yang was insistent that wherever the base was, there would be some type of flowers – corpse flowers, she'd said assuredly - and a lever.

They'd managed to work out a general area for where the place they were looking for was, but when they looked at the area through a 'borrowed' security droid's camera, they found nothing. Yang had stopped them before they shut the feed off though, pointing to a patch of red on the screen. "There."

"What, you want to look at the flowers, seriously?" Weiss asked, moving away from the monitor to look at Yang.

The blonde nodded. "Those are the ones I was telling you about, that I read about in the note? They're supposed to be our way in."

Weiss gave Yang a pointed look. "Why would they leave us a hint? That's probably a trap, or a red herring." She shook her head. "Anyways, I don't think we should read too much into that. The scroll signal is solid evidence, let's stick with that."

"If the signal you traced is such solid evidence, then explain to me why there's nothing in sight in the spot you found it." Yang shot back.

"Hey, don't even start with that, Blake and I were awake trying to find that signal while you passed out in the library with what, five botany books? All because you thought a _note_ was the most solid evidence you could get?"

"Guys, stop arguing, I'm trying to sleep…" Blake groaned from her bed, tossing a pillow at the two. She knew she wasn't actually going to get any sleep, but at least this could potentially get them to shut up for a while.

Yang sighed. "Please just check the flowers out."

Begrudgingly, Weiss zoomed in on the flowers, then had the droid poke around them a bit, until eventually…"I _told_ you there'd be a lever!" The excited exclamation had come from Yang, and Blake sat up to check it out. Weiss just pretended she wasn't surprised by the discovery.

They all wasted little time in arguing about what to do with the information.

"We need to go as soon as possible!" Yang was the first to speak, and stood up quickly from the chair, but was soon followed by Weiss.

"No, we need to make a _plan."_ The heiress countered. "We can't just go in, guns blazing, and expect everything to go our way!"

"Or maybe we could tell the headmaster, or team CFVY, or a teacher, or you know…anyone who's actually qualified to investigate this?" Blake suggested dryly, counting the people she'd listed on her fingers as she did so.

Both of her teammates wheeled around to face her, retorts already prepared, but before either of them got the chance to say them aloud, someone knocked on the door and Blake rushed to answer it, relieved.

Professor Goodwitch stood there, arms crossed. "I'd like to start by saying that all three of you are late for my class…" The three students paled, and Glynda went on as if nothing had changed. "…and I'd like to finish by saying I've taken the liberty of getting a substitute and excusing you from classes." Yang, Blake, and Weiss all perked up.

"Thank you profe-" Glynda held up a hand, cutting Weiss off.

"Now's not the time for 'thank-you's. We're going to the office. Follow me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was fun. I gave Blake and Weiss a little love in this chapter since I've been skimping on their lines in the last two chapters, heheh. My bad. 
> 
> In other news, Neo would be the worst babysitter ever.


	4. Chapter 4

**-Day two: Hour zero –**

**-Time Remaining: 96 Hours-**

"Why are we going to the office?" Blake asked curiously, as the group walked towards the place it felt team RWBY was getting a bit _too_ familiar with visiting.

"To receive the mission details, naturally." Glynda replied curtly, pressing the buttons on the elevator up to the office and motioning for the three students to go in before her. "If you three are hell-bent on going to get Ruby yourselves, then you'll at least need to be informed – "

Yang fist pumped, interrupting her. "So we _are_ going!" She declared, settling into an eager-looking pose. Weiss rolled her eyes.

"I think that was pretty clear without your interruption."

Glynda nodded. "My sentiments exactly…" She muttered, then addressed the three of them again. "You'll need to be supervised, and of course this is still team CFVY's active mission, so don't expect to be doing a whole lot. You're only coming because you know the location now, and nothing short of a natural disaster is going to deter you three from getting there, it seems."

"How did you know we found out the location?" Blake asked, before anyone else got the chance to cut in. Did she overhear them? How long was she outside the door?

The professor shrugged. "A hunch." She said casually, then smiled a bit to herself as if pleased with something.

"A _hunch_ got you to dismiss us from class and take us on a high-priority mission?" Weiss repeated dubiously, her arms crossed. "I feel like there should've been more to it than that."

"I also bugged all of your scrolls. My apologies." The teacher admitted, though she didn't look or sound sorry even in the slightest. She mostly just looked pleased with herself. "I've worked here long enough to know which teams will be the troublemakers, so I – how do I put it? - I plan in advance."

While Yang and Blake mostly just seemed a little irritated with that information and invasion of privacy, Weiss seemed focused on the technical part of that. "Wait, you bugged our scrolls? How did you bug _my_ scroll, my dad had me install the company's security system on it and everything! That should have been at least difficult!"

Blake and Glynda scoffed at the same time, but the professor was the one to elaborate. "Miss Schnee, if I may be so bold, everyone from the White Fang to immature hackers on the other side of Remnant have made their way into that security system. It's no challenge. "

"B- wha- wait a minute, you can't be serio-" Weiss stammered, but the elevator had reached the top, interrupting her. Glynda wordlessly led the students out of the cramped space, and Blake gave Weiss a sheepish look on the way out. Weiss followed them sullenly.

"…It's not seriously that easy, right?" She whispered to Blake on the way to the desk.

"No, it is." Blake replied idly, her attention still on the two blondes in front of her awaiting Ozpin's entry. "You really need to work on getting a better security system."

Weiss groaned, but before she got the chance to voice her complaint, Ozpin came into the office, holding a piece of paper and what appeared to be another memory card. He took a sip of his coffee and sat down at the desk calmly, laying the paper down and waiting around for a few moments.

Yang moved forward to try and start the conversation, but Glynda stuck her arm out in front of her and shook her head no. Yang waited, a little reluctantly.

After a minute or so, Ozpin spoke up, seemingly having sorted out whatever he was thinking.

"Since I've no doubt you're all curious, I'll give you three the information first – just be aware that this is a strictly confidential issue." He waved off the questioning looks from the three students and picked up the paper again, waving it back and forth a little.

"These are the demands." He said bluntly, passing the paper on to Yang, since she was standing at the front. He also tossed the memory chip to Glynda, who pocketed it quietly. The girls didn't seem to notice, focused on Ozpin as he continued. "I rejected them."

Yang scrutinized the paper for a moment, trying to figure out what it said, but after a moment she shrugged helplessly. "I can't read that, it's too…messy."

Weiss snatched the paper from Yang and looked at it herself. "It's like a doctor's handwriting, but it's still readable though. What, can you not read cursive?"

The blonde shrugged again. "I didn't focus a lot on writing at Signal. Err, my teacher didn't, anyways. What's your point? What'd they ask for?"

Weiss prepared to say, but Glynda took the paper up from her hands. "To save everyone's time, I'll just go over it myself. They requested that what they referred to as the Jade Heart be given to them in return for Ruby – A Jade for a Ruby, they said, they must think they're clever," She paused to scowl at the paper, "They sound like it's already a deal, but there's no way we'd agree to this."

"Uhh….What exactly is the Jade Heart?" Yang asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, I've never heard of it either – is it just a jewel or something, or..?" Blake trailed off.

"They explained in another part of the letter that the jade was meant to refer to what I would consider the 'core' of the school – without it we would be unable to use much of the technology, including our defensive barriers . How they know it exists is strange in itself, unless they've somehow gotten into our system, but one fact will remain true no matter what they did or what they call it: Giving it away would put the whole academy in danger." Ozpin clarified, leaning over on his desk. "It's out of the question. So we're sending you and team CFVY, along with Glynda, to retrieve your leader. We can't negotiate on the deal."

Nodding, Blake turned to face Glynda. "So, will we be traveling with team CFVY?"

The professor shook her head. "No, a big group like that would be too conspicuous. We're aiming for stealth, which is why we'll be trekking to the location you girls found on foot. Team CFVY will do the same, separate from our group. We'll meet up near the location and then go forward."

"On foot?!" Weiss sounded shocked. "A trip to Mountain Glenn on foot can take up to two days!"

"Then I suggest we get moving now." Glynda replied. "Any other questions?"

There was a brief silence.

"Good, then we'll be on our way." She said decidedly, and led the girls back to the elevator.

"Good luck." Ozpin called after them idly, taking another long sip of his coffee. "They'll need it…" He muttered, before going back to focus on some other paperwork.

**-One hour later-**

**-Time remaining: 95 hours-**

"Hey, where do you think they're going?" Nora prodded Ren until he looked in the direction she was pointing: out towards the front of the school's courtyard, where Glynda and the remainder of team RWBY could be seen heading for the Emerald Forest where they'd had their initiation.

He just shrugged. "Professor Goodwitch is taking them out. It's probably just a mission." He said curtly, though he also lingered on the retreating forms of the professor and team RWBY.

Nora frowned. "But why would they go on a mission without Ruby?" She stared Ren down until he shifted a little on his feet and tried to act casual about attempting to sneak another glance towards team RWBY. She gasped.

"They must be going to find her! Ren, Ren, Ren, we gotta go too!" She tugged at his arm fruitlessly, but he wouldn't budge.

"We can't disrupt their mission."

"Oh yes we can! They always get to do all the cool break-into places stuff!" The redhead shot back, and Ren relented a little, crossing his arms and shifting back on his feet a bit.

"Fine, but we're consulting with our teammates first."

Nora gave him a wide grin. "So what I'm hearing is a…."

Ren shook his head. "What you're hearing is a maybe."

"It's a yes! Team RWBY, we're on our way!" She fist pumped.

- **Day two: Hour five –**

**-Time Remaining: 91 hours-**

Ruby sat up for what seemed to be the umpteenth time in the past few days, growling irritably. She was _really_ getting sick of waking up in weird places. But hey, at least this time she wasn't tied up, she noted dryly, heaving a sigh as she got to her feet.

The room she was in this time was small, and much more sparsely decorated than the office and the storage cabin she'd seen earlier – the only thing in it was a blanket, a stool, and what she assumed to be some sort of radio system bolted to the wall. It was big enough for her to pace a little though, so after she tried the door, she did just that, going back and forth in the small space and clinging to some small, immature hope that maybe she really _could_ pace a hole in the floor.

She could not.

After an unsuccessful half hour, she crossed her arms and sat down on the floor, though she did spare a glance at the stool before deciding it wasn't going to make much of a difference. At least now she'd be able to pick it up if she desperately needed a weapon. Which she did. Ruby decided to make a quick list of some of the details of her situation, muttering to herself.

"Ooookay, checklist...no weapon….no windows….locked door….arrgh, it's no use!" Frustrated, she ran a hand through her hair before laying down completely on the floor.

Maybe she just had to clear her mind for a minute. Or two. Or an hour.

Without meaning to, she drifted off to sleep again, only waking when something was unceremoniously dropped right onto her stomach, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to jolt awake while she was at it. Once she regained her breath, the disshelved girl shot a disbelieving look at the responsible party.

Neo waved and motioned for Ruby to stand up.

The fifteen year old scowled, and shoved the offending object off her herself. The stool clattered to the floor. "What was that for?!"

Her captor shrugged, and made a few rapid hand gestures that Ruby didn't understand. Seeing the look of confusion on her face, Neo made a point of rolling her eyes and dramatically pulling out a notepad, which she then scribbled out a response on, before shoving it in Ruby's face to read.

' _You're cute when you sleep, but really boring, too.'_

Ruby stiffened. "You were…watching me…sleep?" _Creeeeepyyyy._

The tricolored girl wiggled her eyebrows, but before Ruby got the chance to get to the far, far end of the room, she shook her head and laughed. Or it looked like she was laughing, anyways. "So you're just messing with me." Ruby said flatly. It wasn't a question.

Neo gave her a thumbs up, and wrote another note. ' _Now you're getting the hang of it! Good girl.'_

Raising an eyebrow, Ruby motioned to the stool. "Okay, then what was that actually for?"

The girl shrugged, and gave Ruby another one of her infuriating grins. Looks like she'd never be getting that answer. She skulked over to the other side of the room and positioned herself up against the wall and tried to look at least vaguely uninterested. Maybe Neo would just leave.

Neo didn't seem to want to comply with those hopes, though, and tilted her head, examining Ruby for a while and making the younger girl wonder if she'd spaced out or something before abruptly grabbing Ruby's arm and ushering her towards the door.

Of course, the red-themed girl protested, pulling away from Neo and trying to get back into the room herself, but it was ultimately pointless, and she found herself being pushed toward the door yet again. This time her captor had done her the favor of writing an explanation though, however hastily it was written.

' _Come on Red, time for a fieldtrip.'_

**-Day two: Hour twelve-**

**-Time remaining: 84 hours-**

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggghhhhh-" The very vocal complaint cut through the silence of the forest at the ungodly hour of the morning it was, and for a moment it seemed even the buzzing insects paused for a moment to stare at the source. The insects, and a very thoroughly exhausted teacher, who stopped in her tracks to stare at her student.

"Miss Xiao Long, can you _please_ stop behaving like a child?"

The student in question huffed and blew a strand of hair out of her face, but resigned herself to being a little bit more professional, striding forward to walk alongside the professor, who was leading the group. "Look, I'm sorry, but shouldn't we be at least close by now? It's been hours! Should we pick up the pace?"

"And it'll be at _least_ twelve more hours, Yang." Blake pointed out, motioning to the mountain range they were headed into. "We're barely halfway there and we haven't stopped once." Glynda hummed and nodded her confirmation to the statement.

Weiss, who was in the back and trudging forward as slowly as she could while still keeping the pace, took this time to voice her own suggestions. "Which is exactly why we _should_ stop and make camp for now, or find a spot to rest, at least…"

"No way!"

"Absolutely not!"

The two blondes in the group did a double take, surprised to be on the same page for once, before Glynda cleared her throat and addressed Weiss. "We do not have the time nor the resources to make camp right now, Miss Schnee. As Huntresses in training, you'll need to get used to long missions like this anyways – sometimes you'll be required to run on only an hour or so of sleep when the job calls for it or your teammates are out of commission."

"Jeez, is that why you're so cranky all the time?" Yang mumbled, but if Glynda heard that she chose to ignore it.

"My point is, we can't afford to dawdle. Unless someone is dying, we are going to continue, possibly until tonight too if we aren't there by that time, and then have a brief rest just before our encounter so that everyone is fully prepared. If you feel you are not fully prepared, then…." Her hand hovered over her riding crop. "Stay behind me. I won't see any of you going and getting yourselves injured." She finished.

Weiss seemed a little put out, but she steeled herself and nodded her agreement. "..You're right, we can't waste time, we don't know what they're doing over there."

Glynda seemed to hesitate before she nodded. "Quite right. We have…no idea of what they're doing."

"Well, how are we going to be sure we're going in the right direction, then? Yeah we have flashlights _now_ ,"She said, holding hers out, "But they've only got enough dust in them for one night – they'll burn out before tomorrow." Weiss pointed out. She wasn't trying to convince anyone to stop again, seeing how it'd gone over last time, but she felt the need to point out any holes in the plan she could find. It would be light out soon, and they might make it there before it grew dark again, but they couldn't risk looking for an entryway blind.

Blake half-raised her hand, as if volunteering. "I can keep us on track." She offered.

"Yeah!" Yang offered Blake a high-five, which was soon accepted, though with less vigor, and then threw in her own suggestion. " 'Sides, even if that doesn't do it for you, I can always do this!" To demonstrate what she meant, the blonde activated her semblance, allowing her hair to catch fire. "It's a light source _and_ it's warm! So there aren't any excuses for not going through tomorrow night. You're welcome."

"Gee, thanks," Weiss scoffed. "How kind of you to offer a service nobody was asking fo-"

"Wait, no - Nora - get back here!"

A blur of pink and white tackled Yang to the ground, and the startled group all jumped back a bit, save Yang. "Oh thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou it's so _COLD_ out here when it's dark out! Who knew, right?"

Ren jogged over to the group himself, not out of breath but certainly a little bit tired. " _Nora…_ " He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair as Glynda finally regained herself and stared at Nora. She looked up accusingly at Ren, who held his hands up in surrender.

" _Miss Valkyrie._ " Glynda spoke harshly, each word sounding forcibly restrained, like she was trying to keep from shouting. " _What_ are you and your partner doing here?"

"Uhh." Nora looked up from Yang and smiled nervously. "Helping?" She tried weakly.

"Do you have _any_ idea of what –"

There was a rustling in the bushes, and everyone snapped to attention, the two on the ground jumping to their feet and drawing their weapons. Ren walked soundlessly over to Nora's side, but didn't raise his Storm Flowers. After a tense moment or two of waiting, Pyrrha emerged from the bushes, walking at a normal, if only slightly slower pace than normal. "I'm sorry," She apologized to the group at large, then motioned to her back with her head. "I was slowed down a bit."

Nora and Ren exchanged glances, and everyone else craned their necks to see what was on Pyrrha's back. Yang snorted, not concealing her laughter, and Blake bit her lip to stop her own. Glynda and Weiss shared a mutual expression somewhere between ' _you've got to be kidding me'_ and ' _I'm going to murder someone'._

There, sleeping as soundly as can be, was Jaune, presently being carried by his partner. "He was tired.." She explained lamely.

"Is that seriously the best excuse you have?" Weiss droned. Pyrrha shrugged.

"Nora and Ren saw you guys leaving and wanted to follow. Our team leader also agreed, so we followed…." She trailed off. "It was pretty straightforward, really."

Vexed, tired and with more than enough on her plate, Glynda rubbed her temples as if to ward off a migraine. "I don't have the time to discipline you right now, so just, keep up with the group." She waved the students along to stay behind her, "We will discuss this issue _later._ "

**-Day two: Hour fifteen-**

**-Time remaining: 81 hours-**

Neo gave a small, contented sigh, though no noise escaped her as she did so. Things were going fairly well. Her captive still obstinately refused to do anything she was asked the first few times, but at least she would comply when Neo badgered her enough about something. A few taps to the shoulder, along with some _creatively_ worded notes, and Ruby would begrudgingly do small tasks for Neo.

It was a good step one to have her doing errands like that, and besides, it only took…one, two….four…seven...nine escape attempts! All of the doors were locked anyways, but the attempt of escape led to some…undesirable run-ins, so eventually the red themed girl got the hint and settled on anxiously following Neo around, and only occasionally risking a glance at what was going on around her in the airship.

That wasn't to say she was protected, though. Any time she slipped up or moved to the wrong spot, the grunts were freely allowed to deliver punishment. It'd earned the girl a black eye, and, hopefully, a better sense of caution. Currently, the girl in question was waiting idly for Neo to make another move, even if her attention was more intently focused on what was going on across the room with all the crates being moved about. But that was a good thing, at least, she thought it was. Focus was good, focus was necessary. Neo just wanted that focus to be put in a more useful direction, was all. Preferably, a direction that she got to choose.

Neo waved for her captive's attention and led her back to the small room that had been repurposed as the cell, flourishing a deck of playing cards once she had locked the door. Ruby shook her head petulantly and moved to the far side of the room, but the older girl could wait.

It's not like they were going anywhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly i totally forgot i even had this account? im sorry about that! most of this has already been up on ff for a little while, but, i guess it's better late than never...?? i have no idea. Sorry about the wait, if you even were waiting or didn't know it was on fanfiction as well...


	5. Chapter 5

**-Day two: Hour sixteen-**

**-Time remaining: 80 hours-**

It only took a half hour before Ruby cracked, unable to satisfy her boredom with simple pacing about her cell and much too tempted to play the card game to even manage to think of any possible escapes. Reluctantly, she'd sat down and begun playing cards, only after informing Neo that she only knew how to play Speed and Go Fish. The older girl deadpanned but set up a game of Speed…and promptly beat Ruby, seven times in a row.

She was giving her a smug look, batting her pink and brown eyes in some sort of obnoxious display of arrogance. Ruby shot her a glare as she prepared to deal the cards herself this time, only half convinced her captor had cheated, but half-convinced all the same. She could do without that smug face staring her down every waking second though – Neo practically radiated some unspoken 'I told you so'.

"What? I'm only playing the stupid card game because there's nothing else to do….it doesn't mean I'm gonna agree with whatever you tell me to do!" Her voice took on a defensive tone.

Despite the glare and the accusation, Neo's grin didn't falter, and Ruby looked away, unsettled.

Best to focus back on the game. She moved to start it up again, but was interrupted by a ringing noise coming from somewhere – she turned to face the radio she'd noticed earlier. The ringing continued for a moment, and Neo huffed and stood up, pressing a button on the wall-mounted radio before heading for the door.

Ruby sighed as it was promptly shut in her face.

Well now what was she supposed to do? Nothing about the room had changed, except now she had a deck of playing cards and the pen they'd used to keep score. Not exactly anything that could help her break out of a locked room, let alone help her get past whoever was in the way.

Scratch that, there was still the stool, but…Ruby stood up and investigated it, circling the wooden object. She was absolutely not strong enough to bust the door in with it. But, maybe if she got a running start, and used her semblance, she could try?

Hesitantly, she picked up the stool, eying the door nervously. "Not a lot of room for a running start here…" She mumbled, backing up to the furthest extent she could in the cramped space. "But, it's worth a shot."

Opting to try once or twice without her semblance, she rushed at the metal door with the stool held out in front of her like a lance. She was promptly knocked flat on her butt.

"Okay, okay, didn't work, try again. Try again." She shook her head and stood up to give it another shot, this time bracing herself more for a failure. Again she was knocked back, but she managed to keep her balance this time, which was a plus.

Might as well give it a shot with her semblance now, since she didn't expect better third results. Backing up once more, she gathered up her aura and charged the door one more time…funny, she was meeting a lot less resistanc-

Her eyes widened as she became aware of the sprawled out form of one of the White Fang operatives under her cracking wooden stool and the sound of the door slamming into the wall beside it. They must've just opened it before she charged. He groaned a bit before she regained her senses and tried to make a break for it, running straight smack into an imposing figure.

"…N-nice chainsaw, s-sir…." She stammered, hearing the other guy getting up behind her.

Ruby tried to dart back into her room, but a pair of burly arms wrapped around her waist and she was promptly hoisted over the shoulders belonging to them. "Y-you know, I feel like we met on the wrong terms, here…no? Okay, we're going somewhere, that's uh…oooh boy."

She let out a pitiful whine as they left her corridor behind, and entered a room with even more of the White Fang recruits. It seemed to be a break room of some sort, and there was a bout of laughter as one grunt's hand shot up in the air. "I call first turn!" He called out, laughing. They parted a circle around the guy. The room seemed to have a mix of reactions – Ruby thought she heard a few exasperated " _Come on, guys…"_ and even one person trying to bring the noise level back down, but the majority response was in favor of the grunt currently getting everyone riled up.

' _Shit.'_ Ruby inhaled shakily as the room grew louder again and she was set on the ground.

- **Day two: Hour twenty one-**

**-Time remaining: 75 hours-**

The group was still plodding along in relative silence, Pyrrha having dumped Jaune off her back as soon as daylight came because Blake had convinced her that he "has to get up _eventually,_ you know" . The black haired girl in question was currently keeping behind Yang and trying to distract herself from her exhaustion.

That's what she gets for finally getting a normal sleeping schedule. A kidapping has to go and mess it all up, and now she can barely stay up one night without sleep, let alone her record of three nights. Still, there was no way she'd quit. She decided to try and make some conversation with her partner.

"Hey, Yang?"

"You need something Blake?" The blonde brawler responded cheerfully, taking her eyes off the teacher leading their little party for a moment to glance over at her.

Blake mulled over a good topic of conversation, until she landed on some of her questions. "Well, actually, I was wondering…You seem to be in pretty good spirits now. Aren't you at least a little worried we might get there late, or something?"

"Not at all." She answered, looking over at Glynda for a second before dropping back a bit to talk to Blake a bit more privately. "We know where we're going, and we know they'll be there. It'll only be a few more hours before we can bust in, kick some ass, and have Ruby home in time for movie night." Yang said confidently, her eyes locked firmly on the mountain range they were nearing. She seemed to be spacing out a little.

"…So you really _aren't_ worried, are you?" Blake asked, head tilted. She understood Yang's line of thinking, but… she had to make sure her friend was being realistic, too. "You know, it'll probably be a pretty hard fight, Yang. It won't be that easy. We might not get her back right away."

Yang shook her head. "Believe me, it's not a question of whether or not we're gonna get there in time, or if we're gonna have a tough time fighting a few people off. It's a question of what I'm going to do to them when I've finished beating that tricolored little _devil_ until she's a stain on the floor. " The blonde's aura had flared at this point, and Blake raised her hands up slightly in surrender, taking a step back.

"Okay, I got it! I got the point." Noticing Blake's unease, Yang put her semblance out, giving her partner a sheepish grin.

"Sorry, got carried away."

Blake just nodded. "It's fine. I'll let you get back to it." She made a – hopefully not _too_ – hasty retreat, heading over to where Ren was bringing up the back and seeing Weiss move in next to Yang in her place.

The two black haired students shared a brief silence, both seeming relieved for it while it lasted. After about an hour or so of plodding along at the same general pace though, Ren seemed to have made up his mind on asking a question, and Blake couldn't say she wasn't glad, either. The silence was nice, but it had gotten stifling.

"Blake." It was quiet, not really demanding of her attention, but she responded without missing a beat.

"Mhm?"

"What would you say is the most important reason to get your leader back?" He asked, causing her to do a double take.

"That's a little out of the blue."

He shook his head. "I was just curious. You don't have to answer."

"No, it's fine." Blake tilted her head up a little as she thought, before sucking in a breath and giving the question a shot. "Well, I guess….to have all four of us back together, really." She shrugged, then went on to elaborate. "Our group doesn't work as well without her – Yang and Weiss get on each other's nerves with no moderator, Yang's filter is basically becoming nonexistent, Weiss is more high-strung than usual, and I'm sure I must be acting oddly too, even if I'm not sure how."

Ren hummed thoughtfully. "That makes sense."

"Why'd you ask, anyway?"

He shrugged. "I was just curious." He repeated his previous answer, and Blake resigned to having her question unanswered. Knowing Ren, it probably was that straightforward anyways. She decided to move on from that.

"So, what do you think? About going on this mission, I mean." She backtracked, hoping to clarify. "It seems a little impersonal for you and your team to go to all this trouble with."

"We're your friends." He said bluntly, tipping his head towards the rest of the group, who all seemed to be having idle conversations amongst themselves, like he and Blake were currently. "It's like you said. If one person is missing, there's no balance. We're a team of eight."

Blake smiled wryly. "Pretty deep for the pancake guy, aren't you?" Ren laughed.

"I just hope everything goes well so we can all get some rest soon."

"Agreed."

**-Day three: Hour one-**

**-Time remaining: 71 hours-**

Brushing past a few henchmen on her way to the medical ward, it was safe to say Neo was a little miffed. Yes, she'd granted everyone free rights to punish her captive when they saw it fit, so technically she couldn't get anyone in trouble over this, but still..

When she'd said they could deal punishment, she hadn't meant they could take an _eye_ out!

Granted, they'd said it was an accident. One guy got a bit overzealous with his daggers, she understood that much. It was still infuriating to have to deal with though.

If she could, she'd surely be grumbling to herself, but she kept a calm demeanor as she entered the room. They'd said to take the girl back to her cell, and Neo had decided to do it herself this time, lest her captive come back missing another vital body part.

There were a few yelps of protest from the fifteen year old, who was holding a hand up to her 'eyepatch', which was actually just padding and a bandage over her right eye. The older girl pulled her to her feet anyways, tugging her along a bit slower than she'd have liked, but they made it back to the room soon enough.

She'd deposited the younger girl in the center of the room, but she just sat there for a while. Neo didn't make any moves for a good two minutes, but when she took a step forward, Ruby 'hmmmphed' and wrapped her arms around her knees, curling into as tight a ball as possible.

' _I thought having a captive would be easier than this_ ,' Neo sighed internally, but knelt in front of the younger girl, who jerked away from her but didn't stand up. She seemed more resentful than she'd been when they were playing cards….Neo could count that as a setback towards her real plan. But a setback was only that.

Maybe she could try pulling a few favors and regaining her neutral position with the red-loving girl. Think, what could she do to get some trust back…?

Snapping her fingers, an idea came to her. ' _The blonde girl is her sister. She must trust her, so all I have to do is make an illusion….she's too tired and worn out to be able to tell the difference right now, anyways. The real deal won't be for another few hours at best, but that won't matter if I can play this off right.'_

She only had one eye to trick right now anyways, so this couldn't be too difficult, right?

Racking her brain for her best memory of the blonde she'd fought twice before, Neo eventually focused her semblance enough to get a good projection going. It was definitely fragile – this would hardly take a touch to shatter, let alone a punch, but thankfully Ruby seemed to buy it. Thank remnant for medical drugs not wearing off too quickly.

"Stay 'till I fall asleep?" Ruby asked the illusion groggily. Neo froze, not having any way to make the picture respond. Before she had the time to force a nod, the girl had passed out anyways, leaving her in the clear. Neo heaved a sigh of relief and let the illusion collapse in on itself, walking over to her captive and lifting her head up to inspect it. Ruby was too deep asleep to respond with much other than a light snore.

' _She'll make such a wonderful assistant.'_

**-Day three: Hour two-**

**-Time remaining: 70 hours-**

A loud chime from Glynda's scroll put the group on alert, and the teacher sighed as she was swarmed by the students. "It's nothing. Go back to your business."

"It has to be _something_ ," Weiss said pointedly. "If you weren't expecting some sort of information you would have shut it off, it's protocol."

Glynda grimaced. Perhaps Weiss knew the protocol a little _too_ well. She relented. "Yes, it has to do with the mission, but it's sensitive material. Nothing you need to see, it will not affect any of our plans."

"If it's got something to do with the mission, we have to know!" Yang was understandably the first to protest, and everyone else just murmered their agreement.

"If we're cleared to potentially see something in person, it shouldn't do us any harm to just hear about it." Pyrrha reasoned. Glynda shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but it is my job as a teacher to ensure that you all remain _safe_. I don't trust you not to make any rash decisions once you have this information."

Yang eyed the scroll skeptically, like she was considering trying to take it, before considering the fact that she liked having her arms attached. "You make it sound like bad news." She said cautiously.

"This is a kidnapping, Miss Xiao Long. Any news is bad news. It's just the 'update video'." She put air quotes around the words as she said them. "We're on day three. They delivered it to your dorm's door again, so we can assume they don't know we're on our way."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Nora interjected, raising her hand like she was trying to get called on in class again. She wove it around until Glynda pointed to her, and then it all came out at once. "Iftheysentanupdatetodaywhydidntweseedaytwosupdateeither, huh?"

"Because the previous video is also a sensitive subject." She replied curtly. "Now isn't the time for arguing with the trained professional, we need to keep moving. It'll only be another hour or so before we reach the team CFVY, they're setting up a place to rest before we go in. It's only a half hour from our target from there, but if you don't hurry we might not get the chance to rest _at all_ while staying on schedule."

The students reluctantly settled in behind the teacher in hopes of getting there faster.


	6. Chapter 6

**-Day three: Hour three-**

**-Time remaining: 69 hours-**

An hour later, Glynda informed them that they were reaching the camp. "We've allotted ourselves two hours for rest before we set off on the actual retrieval, and I advise you to make good use of them. " This was met with a few exhausted nods from the student teams, and they continued following the lead.

A few more minutes passed and finally, they made it to the encampment, with Velvet, who'd been on watch duty, rushing out and pulling the professor aside to talk about who-knows-what – probably important mission details, in all actuality, but Yang was too distracted to bother with working out the specifics.

What she _could_ bother with was Weiss.

The heiress hadn't complained in over an hour, not about the walk, not about Yang, not about anything. The blonde couldn't help but feel like something was bugging her, and if something was bugging her that bad it could very well be an important something. Yang waited for the other students to pass them by before moving in on Weiss.

"Alright, spill, what's bothering you? You seem more grumpy than usual."

"What's _bothering_ me? _What's bothering me?_ " She spat indignantly, and even Yang wanted to take a step or two back. "Ha! That's a good question! The shorter answer might actually be what _isn't_ bothering me! But, since you've oh so kindly asked what's _'bothering_ ' me, I suppose I could give you the highlights!" Weiss went on in false cheer, a painfully fake and passive-aggressive smile on her face.

"For starters, we are a team of first years on a mission relegated for juniors. Second off, we are tired, hungry, and irritable. Not to mention being kept out of the loop on our _own mission_! That's like being told to sit at the children's table, it's – it's like they don't _trust_ us enough to know, but somehow we're supposed to perform up to standards? And of course, the very pressing issue – Ruby is missing. We're exhausted, stupid, leaderless students, marching straight into a trap. We don't have the ransom. We're likely outnumbered a hundredfold. There's only one actual huntress with us, and she's probably going to waste a good deal of energy keeping us safe. We're completely – we're…completely – argh, I'll say it! The second we walk through the door to their base, we are completely and utterly _fucked_." Yang blinked as the heiress went on, not daring to interrupt.

She'd never heard her swear like _that_ though…this was affecting the heiress more than she expected. "I didn't even think you liked Ruby…" She muttered softly. Weiss heard it, though, and whirled around to face the blonde.

"Really? Because, from my point of view, you're the one who cares less." She declared, staring Yang down with a look that dared her, invited a challenge in response.

And she took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. "Excuse you? Don't accuse me of that, _princess._ We're _all_ out here, looking for her, and we've almost got her back. If anyone here _didn't_ care, they wouldn't have shown up! Just wait, when we get Ruby back she'll tell you it herself!"

"Oh, I didn't say not at all," She started, "I said _less_. Look at everyone else – they're anxious. Nervous. And then…there's you. Can't you recognize that this is serious?!" it'd started off calmly, but eventually Weiss' voice rose again, and for some reason, it pissed Yang off.

"Of _course_ I can," She defended petulantly, a glare gracing her face. "Unlike _some_ people I just have the dignity not to take my frustrations out on others. Just watch – when we get Ruby back, she'll get mad for us starting fights. Drop it." She emphasized the last two words, but nearly growled when Weiss just slowly shook her head.

"And if we _don't_?"

The blonde's brows furrowed. "If we don't what? What do you mean, _'if we don't_ '?"

The heiress, still shaking her head, looked almost like she pitied Yang, but kept going to achieve some sort of imagined victory – to have the 'I told you so', the last word. "You don't get it." It wasn't a question.

"If I 'don't get it', then why don't you explain?"

"It's like I said before – we might not even be able to pull off this mission." She said blankly, her face as unreadable as her tone. Damn her and damn her political whatever the hell training….

Of course, the idea struck all the wrong nerves with Yang. She felt her semblance heat up of it's own accord. "Don't be such a pessimist, you ass – you're gonna scare everyone like that! Just wait, when we get Ruby back, she'll –"

"When we get Ruby back this, when we get Ruby back that – don't you have any more compelling arguments?! Get it through your skull – here, I'll even say it slowly enough for you to understand, if that's what it takes – We. Might. Not. Win. Not for sure, anyways. There's no guarantee. Even if we go in there, with all our forces, we might not come back out with Ruby. She might die, or we'll die, or maybe even all of us – the whole lot of us, dead in some underground-"

"Shut up!" Before the opportunity arose to continue shouting, or throw a punch, both of the arguing girls fell to the ground in a flash of brown, a heavy thud shaking the very ground beneath them.

"Alright kiddos, why don't you go ahead and relax like the teach said to? You're no good to anyone if you beat the crap out of each other before we even get in the base…" Coco, who'd taken a casual seat on her likely several-ton bag, seemed to be eying the two critically from behind her shades.

She turned to face her two male teammates. "Yatsuhashi, you take blondie over there. Fox, you can handle little miss instigator, right? Good. Maybe have a few choice words with her, if you can stand to carry her so close to your head for that long." Weiss sputtered indignantly at her, as Fox slowly made his way over to where the sound came from and hefted her over his shoulder. On the other side of Coco, Yatsuhashi did the same with Yang, only wincing slightly at the burning from her semblance.

It flared again as he lifted her, but he said nothing until she was secure over his shoulder, and then muttered: "If you are not stopping the fires, I'll drop you in a lake."

Reluctantly, she willed it to stop, and meanwhile, Weiss had figured out her choice words. "I am _not_ the instigator! I was just thinking out loud! That brute is the one that was going to get violent!"

Yang responded in turn with two quite special fingers, just as Blake arrived on the scene, drawn by the noise. "Oh, boy…." The sigh was a desperate one, even as her shoulders slumped despondently and she tried and failed to count up exactly how much damage control she was going to have to do.

"I don't envy _your_ job." Fox snorted, carrying Weiss off closer to the campground. "But then, mine isn't so great either…" He sighed for himself, as Weiss continued to struggle.

Coco gave the black haired girl a pat on the back before she made Yatsuhashi drop his captive.

"Good luck with that. If it gets heated – heh, heated – we'll be watching from the relative safety of over here – unless, you'd like to do something else – handle ice queen, maybe? I don't think Fox can talk sense into her, and I think blondie needs some time to chill."

The conversation was easily overheard and, Yang, who'd decided she should sleep on it, or at least pretend to, gave a nod. "Go to Weiss, Blake. I'll just be…taking a walk."

They made eye contact, and, hesitantly, Blake left. She understood needing space, or at least was willing to let Yang off the hook just this once.

The blonde breathed a sigh of relief as she was left alone. She had some thinking to do.

**-Minutes later, with Blake and Weiss –**

"Weiss! What was that?!" Blake exclaimed helplessly, the second they made it to a more private place to talk. She made a gesture, indicating back towards where the heiress and brawler had their fight. She stiffened, and kept her eyes locked on the ground.

"She needed to know." She said quietly, still stubbornly keeping her eyes away from Blake.

Blake, of course, knew the gist of the argument by this point, and was quick to disagree. "Really? You decided to set off the _least_ stable person on our team right now because she 'needed to know'? You don't go around telling people their friends – their _sisters_ – could be _dead_! You're lucky she didn't try to take your head off!" Vexed, the girl ran a hand through her hair, having let off her own steam with that smaller, safer outburst. She continued in a quieter tone. "Why would you do that, Weiss?"

"She needed to know." Weiss repeated, not lifting her head in the slightest. Her tone remained unchanged, but that in itself puzzled Blake. No snappy retort? Not any sort of argument?

She tried to piece it together, and, at long last, found her reason. "Weiss." She said it clearly, a determined noise that rang out into the surrounding trees, with an authority that made Weiss look up just slightly – enough for Blake to see the redness in her eyes. "This…This has happened to you before, hasn't it?"

"…" The white haired girl was silent for a long while, and looked up to Blake with a face as blank as an unused canvas. Any traces of tears or distress had been carefully removed. She said nothing.

"Someone else," Blake went on insistently. "Someone else you knew got kidnapped, didn't they? You weren't trying to convince Yang it was a lost cause, you were trying to convince yourself. You didn't want to be disappointed again. Am I correct, Weiss?"

"…I….they….they never gave her back, you know?" Weiss finally caved, slumping dejectedly into the shoulder Blake offered to lean on. " I never….I never saw her again."

The taller girl regarded the comment in silence, opting to try her best to comfort the other girl. She knew it was a horrible time to be thinking this, but she found it almost ironic. _'To think…a year ago I was with a bunch of people that wouldn't hesitate to kill her, and now….I'm sitting here rubbing circles in her back in an attempt to soothe her….'_ She hadn't meant it, but a dry laugh escaped her.

Weiss looked up, looked indignant, like she was going to retract her statement and regret opening up like that, so Blake tried to get her sentiments across before that. "You're almost as pessimistic as I am – almost." She said wryly, but went on more sincerely after that, "Have a little faith. This isn't then – this time, you can resolve it. Do that, and the rest of us'll be there with you when the time comes."

The heiress managed a hesitant grin. "Thanks."

"Any time. Now, I believe we've got one more teammate to have a talking-to with…." Blake trailed off, and Weiss looked down once more.

"I don't think that's the best idea. Do you think you could –"

"No." The faunus shot the idea down as soon as it cropped up. "You need to learn how to apologize on your own, and she needs to learn how to keep herself calm. Go make amends, and I'll supervise."

She followed behind the reluctant girl, idly ticking down the time until they would have to leave, and idly making note of how much extra sleep she was going to demand when this whole rescue mission was through.

**-Day three: Hour five-**

**Time remaining: 67 hours-**

Neo was - quite uncharacteristically, she should add - nervous. Not for herself, for she had long ago gotten over the point of fearing for herself. She recognized her piece, her lot in life – expendable, but invincible. While Cinder plotted and planned and considered herself the biggest, baddest piece on the board, Neo knew she was only the King piece, holding power she couldn't use.

Neo knew she was the Queen piece, and, somewhere, she was sure Cinder did too.

So no, she wasn't nervous for herself.

She was nervous for the unconscious, one-eyed girl on the floor of the room they were in. They were all discussing the fate of the girl and, like a petulant child, Neo had been the one to disagree with their otherwise unanimous group vote to just off her now.

"Neo, Ozpin already sent word of his disagreement to our terms. We've gained all we can from her, scared them to high hell and back – so now she's useless. Why even bother waiting the full five days?" Emerald asked with a shrug. "I say we make her death quick, film it, and leave a not-so-messy end to a very messy problem. The end, we can move on."

Mercury quirked an eyebrow at the phrase. "Usually you want to make the death a little longer. Wouldn't you think it better to draw it out, to really rattle the other little snots?"

"Well…" She shifted uncomfortably, and now Neo was eyeing her like a hawk, unblinking eyes fixed on the green haired girl. _Come on_ , she tried to ask, as if telepathy existed, _let me keep her a little longer. A little longer is all I need to make her useful._ It didn't work, but Emerald did still help give her another opening. "Well – hell, I don't know. We met her at the academy, she acts like she's twelve. My moral compass is screwy, but I'm not going to torture some little kid, no matter how obnoxious they are – and look, no matter how we dispose of her, it won't help or hurt our cause. Why not just go for the easiest approach?" The way she said it wasn't defensive, but it got an appreciative nod from Mercury and Roman seemed more or less indifferent on how to kill her, as did Cinder.

Now Neo just had to get them off the idea of killing her entirely. She grated her teeth, recognizing the daunting task for what it was, but turned to face Mercury and signed to him. _'She's right! Killing her won't help or hurt the cause, so why not just not kill her? I can make her useful. I can get her to work for us, just give me the time! You know I'm a good hypnotist. Let me try it.'_ It was a bit much to sign all at once, and she had to repeat bits and pieces to ensure Mercury was following, but he gave a slight, confused nod. He was still frowning though, so she braced for a negative spin on his words.

"She says she can make her useful for us, if we wait long enough for her to hypnotize or traumatize her into doing it. But I think the plan is a little iffy." He shrugged. "Not my place to decide that, though. "

Roman scoffed. "Christ, ice cream, just let us kill her already. Why are you going to these lengths in the first place?"

Everyone looked expectantly to her and Mercury again.

' _I want an assistant. Or at least someone under me. All of you guys get underlings but I just have the booooring white fang grunts!'_ She couldn't quite convey the emphasis on 'boring' that she'd have liked to, but she was hoping the message was clear enough without it.

"She says she just wants an underling." Mercury said blankly. Emerald looked over to him, then at Ruby, and finally Neo and back to Mercury, silently asking his opinion. "I say let her have her toys. It's no concern to us as long as she gets the kid to stay out of our way."

Cinder stared over at Neo with a curious expression. Nearly unreadable, to the untrained eye. But Neo was not untrained. She could easily make out the confusion, curiosity, and a glint of something even Neo couldn't place right away. Was it just malice? Amusement? What was it? "Why this one? I can get you better toys. Stronger ones, ones that aren't flight risks. Why this one?"

She met her gaze with a familiar intensity, one common in dealing with Cinder. _Potential,_ she'd signed to Mercury, who conveyed the message more quietly now, disinterested with the situation at hand.

"I think I know what you're talking about, but still…we should have some insurance, in case she really does run away….." There was that glint again..! But what was it? "I say, by the end of the five days…if she is not completely loyal…..we ensure her silence another way."

Neo slowly narrowed her eyes. She couldn't mean….

"If she isn't on our side in two days, we cut out her tongue. Make quick work of it, Neo – I do so hate to make anyone's job harder, what with another mute on the team."

Seething, the short, tricolored girl watched as Cinder left the room, that infuriating, implacable glint of _something_ never leaving her eyes. Emerald gave her an almost sympathetic – key word almost – ' _ouch'_ at the very obvious insult, but Roman took it with a grain of salt. "I still say we just shoot the kid. It'd be doing her a favor, the way things are turning out as is. Think about it, would you?" And he left, too, leaving her with the unconscious girl and a _lot_ of frustrations to vent.

As she scowled and plotted how exactly to attain the victory she'd set up for herself – it'd seemed so clear, when she thought of it, why did Cinder have to step all over it like this?! – minutes passed and the Ruby stirred, waking to Neo furiously scribbling down plans – with two broken colored pencils beside her, which left her to write in only brown, adding to her frustrations.

She approached cautiously. "…what are those?" she asked finally, her voice rough and raw – to be expected, Neo had overheard her whimpering in her sleep – and Neo whipped around to show it to her.

The paper read: _Ruby's training plan!_ In capital letters, and, where writing was expected, there were pictures below, because doodling was a better stress vent than writing instructions, at least for Neo. The first depicted something along the lines of Neo with a chalkboard and Ruby sitting on the floor, like a kindergartener. The second had a very, _very_ stylistic choice of Cinder, drawn to look as terrible as possible, peering at Ruby and giving a thumbs up in the next panel, after which Neo drew a small, cartoon image of herself flipping the woman the bird.

Ruby squinted at the paper like it was in hieroglyphics. "Uhh…." She raised both her hands, to rub the sleep out of her eyes, before flinching _hard_ at her own attempt to touch her right one. "So…it really is gone…." She mumbled, almost sounding breathless. Her visible eye grew a little watery, closing as if it'd will away the pain in her other one, but she shook her head hard and fast, wiping her left eye as quickly as any moisture had formed.

She focused it on Neo with a hard glare. "I'm still going to get out of here, missing eye or not! Don't you doubt that for a second, lady!"

Oooooh, boy. She had her work cut out for her. Ruby was sulking now, and, scanning the paper with her useful eye, quickly tossed it aside. "I won't work with any of you."

Before the other girl could even attempt to counter that with any notes or looks of her own, a loud crash sounded a few rooms over. That would be them, right on time. Perfect, she had the _perfect_ way to get rid of the interfering students. And then, Ruby wouldn't have anything to go back to, and she'd have to work with her and be her new and improved translator, underling, and, perhaps, if the time were right, and the wounds were old, friend.

A lot was hanging on this.

Wordlessly – for what other way could Neo do anything? – she grabbed Ruby's arm and tugged her into the halls, to a better hiding spot that she would need to prepare. White Fang henchmen rushed past them in troops, opening fire in a room not too far away.

"What's happening?" Ruby shouted over the noise and gunfire, then coughed as she inhaled something they were moving through – leftover red dust from the dust rounds in some of the operatives' guns – and spat the resulting explosion to the side, not daring to try and hit any of the White Fang with it lest she be injured again.

Of course, Neo couldn't respond, only hustle Ruby into another corridor, the most narrow one there was. Blocking it off from the other side were crates, and Neo gave Ruby a warning look as she left her there – then tugged one of the rushing grunts and pointed at her with an expression that made it clear he was to watch her, nothing more, nothing less. He nervously nodded agreement to that, and she all but shoved him into the corridor with Ruby before creating an illusion just outside it – one that made it look like just more wall on the bigger hall. Aside from a very, very faint shimmering, it was impossible to tell it from the real thing.

Pleased with the work, she turned tail and set up another, much more important illusion, grinning devilishly as her plans came to light. If she was right, it'd only be a few minutes before the shoddy 'rescue party' made their way to where she was.

She had seen and heard enough of Ruby the past few days to construct the image in her sleep, even with the revision of the eyepatch – which she left off, after a moment's thought, thinking the sight of a fresher looking wound would do more to disturb the rescue party – and did just that, waiting behind a few more storage crates for her _very_ special visitors to enter the room.

The room where they were about to witness the demise of one Ruby Rose.

- **Same time –**

She could admit, as she smashed through the henchmen with little to no understandable pattern, that there was a certain feeling of impending misfortune. Maybe it really was just for this battle in particular, which so much depended on, or maybe it was just something she hadn't thought of yet in previous battles. The gravity of the situation had sunk in with her a while ago, back when they'd first gotten the news, in all honesty.

The feeling didn't distract Nora so much as give her more reason to fight harder.

Expertly twisting out of the way of a few blows the grunts would have delivered, she swung Magnhild around, letting the heavy hammer's momentum bring her into a spin, like a spinning top of destruction. She couldn't achieve the whirlwind of steel that Ruby could, and that was just one more reason, one more to the pile, to ensure she escaped. After all, she'd never learn the technique without her.

On some level, she felt bad for the grunts she was tossing aside like yesterday's leftovers, but a few agonized screams to her left reminded her she should feel _much_ worse for the ones getting in the way of team (R)WBY. Probably team CFVY and Glynda, too, but Glynda was in the room just next to this, taking on the tougher commanders that she had quite literally lifted out of the battle, and kept the door firmly shut behind her. Team CFVY was doing their fighting on the ground level, to keep any grunts from going for help. So they weren't as distracting as the leftovers of Ruby's team.

Weiss had been using the glyphs on overdrive, seeming for all the world untouchable. She darted around the room with her haste glyphs, and on each launch, expertly took out another grunt with her rapier. A wall of ice blocked the entrance they had come in from, curousey of the white haired girl, to keep the two student teams from having to face an onslaught from two sides.

Blake, every ounce as deadly as the poison she took her last name from, was frequenting the sides, taking out anyone unfortunate enough to be tossed there. If they weren't dead or unconscious by the time they were thrown aside, she assured that they were. Gun loaded with weak yellow dust pellets, one good shot from it would ensure that whoever was hit wouldn't be moving for a few days afterward. She slashed with the blunt edge of her weapon, flickering in and out of place as her clones took the brunt of any attacks directed at her.

And then of course there was Yang. Nora nearly faltered in her own fighting as she turned to look at the blonde, momentarily torn between her own battle and watching that one. Yang fought through waves of the grunts all on her own, semblance roaring and bright enough to make others avert their eyes. Ember Celica was not designed to kill. But used like this, even Nora was starting to wonder if it would or not. Those that weren't knocked viciously aside by her punches faced bouts of flame, and were all but stampeded on the blonde's quest to locate her sister.

"Yeah," Nora muttered to herself, again twirling her hammer and forcing it onto the ground, making it quake with the force of a small earthquake, "I almost feel bad for those guys." Her quiet reflection was brought to a swift end as she watched with glee and amusement as the toppled henchmen scrambled to get up, only to face swift and brutal one-hit at the hands of Ren, who remained, in her opinion, the best partner ever.

Even in the dire situation like this, there was fluidity in his movement, and he twirled his Storm Flowers as he moved from henchmen to henchmen, firing at close range and taking them out where it would really hurt – pressure points. She knew he was aiming for them because he'd tried to teach her, once. It failed, but she never forgot the lessons – never forgot how fun they were, or the locations of the points she was never swift enough to hit before Ren. He flitted about the battlefield, always just out of the range of fire until he moved in and took out several in one fell swoop.

Nora slammed the ground again, not forgetting her own duties, and this time Pyrrha and Jaune swept in.

Mind, Jaune didn't do a whole lot, just uneasily hit one or two grunts with the blunt end of his sword, while his aura took any hits directed at him with little to no issue. Pyrrha, on the other hand, used her semblance to it's full, not only tripping enemies in the steel gear but also throwing her shield and spear with no discretion of which grunts they hit, as they came back and swept up the stragglers when she pulled them back in, like giant, deadly boomerangs. All her opponents were left collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

She cracked a grin at the two as they left her again, and she returned to one of her favorite tactics – with the battlefield cleared, she could finally unfold Magnhild into its gun form. No matter how grave the situation, she couldn't help but shout before she fired it off into the masses, seeing as her allies had all cleared out and began to fight the ones behind her to watch her back. But she also knew they were all watching, watching with an eagerness to parallel her own, waiting for her clear the path to wherever Ruby was.

Who was she to deprive them of that satisfaction? "This. Is. Happening!" Keeping up her unfaltering grin, she cranked back on the trigger, firing her huge explosive round into the crowd of approaching grunts. She smiled and leaned against her weapon, counting on her fingers as she waited. "Three….two…."

The room shook, and a pink shockwave rushed through it in a current. Nora watched proudly as the ranks were toppled. "Score one for team super-awesome-extra-cool-student-rescue-force-mach 8!" The lengthy made up name earned her a sideways look from a few of the students, but she just shrugged in response and hurried for the door with the rest of them – team WBY had already nearly reached it, and she wasn't about to be left behind! Especially not when there was so much going on!

The enigmatic redhead burst into the next room, ready and eager for another swarm of opponents.

But the room was empty.

Almost empty, anyways – her comrades were beside her, and she heard the familiar clack of Professor Goodwitch's heels on the smooth tiling of the base – but no grunts. No waves of enemies to fend off, no groups ready to have craters smashed into them, and no glory-filled battlefield.

Instead, the only others in this room were two other girls, seeming impossibly far away. One stood, an unwavering gaze trained on those so far across from her, and the other was kneeling, buckled over and only propping herself up by her arms, her own unsteady, unfocused gaze locked on the ground.

Nora inhaled sharply at the sight of Ruby like that. She was far away, but not far enough. Even from here, she could make out the biggest difference in her friend since the time she'd last seen her.

Her right eye was gone. In its' place was a terrible rift, the skin raw and flushed, treated but obviously never going to heal. The area of impact was from her brow to the middle of her cheek, and the sides of the wound were jagged, like torn paper, nothing like the smooth scar Weiss had over her left eye. The socket was easily the reddest part, looking like it might actually still be bleeding, in parts. Vaguely, she felt the others beside her stiffen as they noticed the same thing.

She was saying something – it was hard to make it out, but Nora was fairly certain she heard something along the lines of 'too late'. Before she could question the statement, or anyone could move to respond, the other figure drew a sword out of her parasol. Everyone hastened to react, and one, two seconds passed, Weiss's glyph forming beneath her and Blake's clone and Pyrrha pulling back to throw her spear and Yang loading her gauntlets and Ren taking aim, Nora even felt herself raising her hammer – but everyone was too slow.

Before anything could be done, the blade was thrust cleanly through Ruby's chest. In a flash of red - too much blood for the pierce to be as clean as she'd thought it was – the young huntress in training's head bowed, and finally collapsed to the floor.

It took two more seconds for Nora to realize the screaming was coming from their side of the room.

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

**-Day three: Hour six-**

**Time remaining: 66 hours-**

Surprisingly, it was Pyrrha who managed to react first, not having halted in her throw even when the blade was brought downwards. As it sailed towards it's target, everyone else was snapped back into real time, rushing the neopolitain girl. Absolute refusal to let her escape kicked in, and even the generally calm and collected Ren was moving with a certain recklessness that usually wasn't present, in his and everyone's haste.

' _We should have been able to handle it,'_ Blake thought frantically, ears still ringing from the absolutely ungodly noise Yang had emitted moments earlier. Not that she could blame her. ' _We should've gotten here sooner.'_ She used her semblance to flash step, dashing up to her partner's side for a moment. Beside her, everyone else wasn't far behind.

And the icing on the metaphorical shit cake was, Neo was just standing there. Waiting. Smiling. Like she knew she wasn't going to get hit.

She was going to love every second of proving the girl wrong.

But it seemed the pleasure would not be hers. Yang had just gotten close enough to blow a hole in the side of Neo's head when Pyrrha's spear shattered the girl – no, shattered both of them.

On the ground, Ruby also shattered, breaking into fragments just the same as Neo's form had. She was completely transfixed on the pieces for a long while, before they disappeared and she finally drew conclusions on what had just happened.

Everyone else stood around where the two had been in shock, save Glynda, who looked…uncomfortable, but not outright surprised. Yang stared at the floor where her 'sister' had been, clearly still reeling from the rapid shift of events, and Weiss did the same, whereas Nora and Jaune were fidgeting uncomfortably and Ren was drawing short, shallow breaths as he looked around the room for any indication of Neo or Ruby's presence. Pyrrha and Blake both immediately looked to Glynda for some reassurance, at least, that's why Blake thought Pyrrha was looking to Glynda as well.

When nobody said anything, Glynda was the first to speak, pushing up her glasses decisively. "Obviously, the image was an illusion, so we still have the primary objective to complete. But, it is…understandable, if any of you do not wish to press on at the moment. You may remain here while I see about retrieving the real deal in one piece. " While she was still nothing less than direct about her purposes, she was clearly trying to phrase it more gently than she would for an experienced team. It wasn't exactly hard to see that the majority of the students had been shaken to the core.

While the majority response to this was 'no', Pyrrha turned to face her team. "I…I think it would be best if we left this to the professor. We need to recover, and I'm certain that team RWBY and Glynda will more than suffice for the rescue."

Nora made as if to protest, but Ren put a hand on her shoulder, wearing a grave expression. He shook his head no, and she quieted.

"Actually," Blake cut in, looking first at Pyrrha and then at her two remaining teammates, "I think that Weiss and Yang should sit this one out." She said, choosing her words carefully.

The attempt was lost on the both of them, each looking up with indignation and no doubt already preparing to argue. She cut in again before they got the opportunity. "Listen!" She demanded sharply.

The duo fell silent, unused to the sharp tone. Blake continued. "I _know_ you want to go. But you aren't in any condition to. We'll get into trouble if you just start blindly targeting anything that moves, and I know both of you well enough to expect that of you, at least when this much weighs on it. I think two from team JNPR should go – preferably not Jaune, as rude as it sounds I just don't think he's quite up to it either – and Glynda will have an easier time directing a smaller group….right, professor?" She tacked the last part on hopefully, knowing the teacher's confirmation would be the only way to convince Weiss to back down.

Thankfully, the woman nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Yes, it would be. But we need to leave as soon as possible, so I'll keep this brief: Xiao Long, Schnee, both of you are remaining here. Belladonna, watch them. Lie Ren and Miss Nikos, I'll be having you two accompany –"

"No!" Nora interrupted plaintively. When everyone turned to look at her, she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, before seeming determined again. "Ahem. No, I'd like to go instead of Ren. He's too tired to keep up like this, and if he takes a minute to rest it might cause trouble." She explained, all too calmly for her usual nature. "So…would it be alright if I went in his place?"

Hesitantly, Glynda nodded. "That is acceptable. Let's move."

The remainders watched as the three walked off. Yang and Weiss were both glaring at Blake, who was trying her best to avoid their obvious anger. And she meant _really_ obvious. Even over the sound of Ren catching his breath and Jaune nervously humming to himself, she could hear a slight crackling – she wouldn't need to look to know Yang's semblance was activated.

"S-so, at least we know Glynda's on the job, right? We'll be, uh, headed home with Ruby in no time! Probably?" Jaune tried to clear the silence in the room, and everyone, excluding Ren, who looked over at him dubiously, raising an eyebrow, ignored him.

Finally Weiss walked over to Blake, arms crossed. The black haired girl avoided eye contact. At least Weiss' words were to the point. "Why did you do that?!"

"Yeah, I'd like to know too." Yang cut in brusquely. "You know how important this is!"

"I guess I do." Blake agreed absentmindedly, still refusing to look at either of her teammates. "That's exactly why I did it. You two aren't prepared to fail, but you don't stand much of a chance of success either. Why not increase the odds in our favor, just this once? Send someone better equipped to handle it? It was a better idea than running off and getting mauled by that girl. Nora, Pyrrha and Professor Goodwitch all have better ranged abilities than us. They have a better chance."

This seemed to come at least close to smoothing things over with Weiss, but Yang was obviously still bristling. Sensing this, Ren moved in next to Blake and began talking quietly, discouraging the blonde from interrupting and leading to her skulking off to the side of the room without further incident.

Once she was out of earshot, Blake finally turned to face Ren, actually working up the might to make eye contact. "Thanks. I don't have it in me to fight with either of them right now."

He nodded in understanding. "I don't think any of us do. I'll stay here just in case, though."

It was quiet for a long while.

Suddenly, the ground shook beneath them. Everyone jolted, then leapt up and into fighting positions, weapons drawn. The vibrating continued, reminding Blake of a garage door. Strange, it seemed a bit out of place for someone to just park their car in a crime base –

"Oh, _fuck._ " She muttered, watching from the far, far ground as a bullhead rose into the air. " _Fuck._ " She cursed again, legs moving of their own accord up the scaffolding on the farther side of the room. She bust through the window with the hilt of Gambol Shroud and continued her mad dash to the opening the plane was leaving from. She was almost there now. Just get to the roof, get to the roof, get to the – " _FUCK!_ "

She leapt from her perch, knowing already that there was only a slight chance of success, and flung the pistol end of her weapon in hopes of wrapping it around the wing. She used a shadow clone to propel herself further, if only to help a little.

It clattered along the side, and barely, just barely, around the edge of the wing. She couldn't swing on that…but it was the only thing keeping her airborne and not falling to the ground, now. Steeling herself, Blake slowly made her way up the ribbon. Almost there….she could almost grab the wing of the bullhead with her own hands now….

At the side of the bullhead, the door opened. "No, nononononononono –" Her complaints were useless.

With a little flourish, the green haired girl at the door kicked the only thing anchoring Blake to the plane, and then she fell.

' _So this is it….maybe I'll land on my feet?'_ She thought airily, as her hair fell to getting in her face. The wind on her back felt nice – though she doubted the ground would allow her to enjoy the sensation for very long.

Just before she fell to certain, bone-shattering doom, she was caught. Surrounding her, a purple light let her back down onto the ground, depositing her straight in front of a very angry looking teacher.

"Miss Belladonna, out of every-"

Bracing herself for a scolding, she interrupted before the blonde professor could speak. "We need to get to Vale."

"Miss Belladonna, out of _everyone_ on your team I expected _you_ to be reasonable." Glynda chided, finishing her previous sentence anyway before straightening herself up and giving her a raised eyebrow. "Now, what's so pressing about Vale?"

"A woman we can assume is in there makes glass barriers that even you can't get rid of, from what Ruby told me about her first fight with Torchwick," She explained patiently. "But we need a way to bring down that bullhead, right?" Blake asked, fidgeting already in hopes of making the calls they'd need to make sooner.

"Go on…." Glynda said cautiously.

"Well I know a way, and her name is Penny Polendina."

**-Day three: Hour fifteen-**

**Time remaining: 58 hours-**

Slouched in the corner of another, even smaller room than the last one, Ruby tried to make herself as scarce as possible. The young scythe wielder still had a splitting headache, her anesthesia having worn off hours ago and left her with it. Still, it might have been her fault, a little. Every time her eye seemed to stop hurting, some sort of morbid curiosity drew her hand up to it again, which always resulted in a spike of pain, and probably also prolonged her headache.

Whatever had happened earlier had to have been important. Even as the hours passed, she was certain of that much. Everyone was in too much of a hurry for it to be something minor. And then they'd dragged her onto a bullhead, which was still in the air. She'd tried to get away from the guard Neo had left her with, but without crescent rose, she was useless in a fight. He'd apprehended her with ease, and then Neo came back to take her up onto the ship.

Neo hadn't been so tactless as to try and commence her 'training' (which Ruby still _refused_ to cooperate with) while the young girl was in this sort of state, and for that, she was almost grateful.

With nothing to focus on but nursing her headache, Ruby was quickly tiring of the silence. Something was ringing in her ears by now, even though she knew it wasn't a real sound, and she fixated on it, zoning out for as long as possible. There were guards stationed in the room with her, only adding to the claustrophobic feeling it created.

She watched idly as the one on the left shifted on his feet a little, before jolting back to his position after noticing the one-eyed girl glowering at him.

Ruby looked back to the side, where another wall greeted her.

At some point, she decided it wasn't worth it, closing her eye and feigning sleep, slouching just a little bit more against the corner she was propped up in. There were about five more minutes of silence, and then….

"Psst. Hey. You think she's sleepin'?" Came one guard, presumably the male she'd glared at.

"I don't know. Check if you're so worried about it." The other guard, a girl, shot back irritably.

Ruby felt something lightly touch her shoulder, and, while every inch of her body ached to retaliate in some way, she let him shake her. It was funny, he was actually pretty gentle. The fifteen year old faked a little snort, like she was stirring, and the hand was quickly removed. She slumped again.

"Out like a light." He whistled. "Great, now we should be allowed to talk."

"Yeah, sure, blab my ear off the whole shift. Dust knows you aren't gonna do anything else…" The other grumbled.

"What happened to her? I mean, her eye? It's gone, I know it wasn't gone when she got here, I was one of the two in charge of watching her that time she…err. Maybeortofescapedthearea."

"Oh, so that was _you._ Good to know you're famous for slacking off." The girl droned. "Anyways, some guys ganged up on her in the break room – apparently she hit Bane with a stool and he, well, obviously he wasn't pleased. But it was some other guy who actually managed to screw her over with the whole eye thing." She explained indifferently.

She heard one of them lean up against the door, armor clacking against the steel surface. "Dust, that sounds like hell. Why do we even have this kid anyway? I mean, I just – I dunno, it feels a little out of place to be kidnapping people. How's this s'posed to help us accomplish anything?"

"Who cares? Boss says we keep her, we keep her."

"Yeah, but…aren't we the good guys? We don't seriously have to _kidnap_ people, right?"

From her corner, Ruby strained her ears to hear the rest of the conversation. Now she was interested.

Unfortunately, the female guard was less so. "….Well – shit, I'm not talking about this, man. Get back to your job."

The young huntress-in-training stifled a groan.

She cracked her remaining eye open once more and staggered up to her feet, startling the guards. Ruby ignored them and walked to the locked door, resting her head on it for a second, putting her ear to it in hopes of being able to hear activity in the hallway. She made sure her right ear was on the door, so she would still be able to see the guards with her good eye.

There was nothing.

After a minute or so, she returned to pacing. Another minute, she turned to face the guards. "..I need to change my bandage. Where's Neo?"

They exchanged glances. "I'll go get her."

**-Day three: Hour seventeen-**

**Time remaining: 56 hours-**

"Found anything yet?" Weiss asked, voice coming through the scroll with shoddy quality. Yang took one more look around, as if Penny would appear magically with just that question. Still no sign of the enigmatic girl though, so the blonde just sighed deeply in response. Weiss heard it, and responded with her own. "I was afraid of that. No luck with me and Nora either. Are you sure you don't know _any_ of Penny's hang outs?"

Yang shrugged, hugging herself uncomfortably with the arm she wasn't using for her scroll. "Yeah. None of us really talked to her…Ruby had her scroll number, I know that much, but that's kind of useless information to us now."

The other line was quiet for a beat. "…Maybe we should have taken her up on her offers to come with, when they were hanging out." Yang tried quietly.

"Don't go moping around now, idiot!" Her teammate's response was instant. "Just, keep looking, okay? I'll check in with you later." And with that, the heiress hung up, leaving Yang to her duty of searching the docks.

She looked up at the sound of heels on the pavement, finding Pyrrha, her 'search-buddy', as Jaune had dubbed her, tilting her head sympathetically. "A tough conversation, I take it?"

The blonde gave a curt nod. "It's nothing, she's just on edge. We should get back to looking, if we ever hope to find her. I hope she's still here – Rubes mentioned she was in town for the Vytal festival, if that's any help."

The redhead hummed thoughtfully, apparently mulling the information over. "Well, if she's just visiting, then, perhaps we should check out the hotels?"

"You're a genius!" Yang exclaimed, suddenly perking up. Ignoring Pyrrha's bashful deflection of the compliment, she grabbed her temporary partner by the hand. "C'mon, I know the first place to look!"

A few minutes later found them in front of a hotel, titled the Three Bears Inn. Pyrrha regarded the hotel skeptically. "It's a bit out of the way. Are you sure a lot of visitors would stop by here?"

Yang shrugged. "Eh, probably not, realistically. But it's really cozy and worth a shot – me, dad and Rubes would come here on vacation sometimes. See the city and all that junk. It's got a pretty good rating, and, well, Penny didn't seem like much of a socialite from what I saw of her, so she could totally end up staying somewhere out of the way, right?"

"That's a good point. I forgot you didn't live in Vale – You're from Patch, right?"

"Yep!" She replied, popping the 'p' sound. "And you're from Mistral. What's that like? I'd tell you about Patch, but there isn't much to tell. It's hot, and there's a bunch of forests. Other than that it's pretty much typical island junk. No palm trees, though, which is a bit of a let-down I guess."

Pyrrha laughed. "Mistral doesn't have much to tell about either. It's always raining there, and when it's not raining the smog is bad enough to invade your nose for a week. But, I digress, we're getting off topic. Who do we ask to see if Penny was here?"

Yang motioned to the receptionist, giving her companion a mouthed 'I got this' and strutting up to the desk. "Welcome to the Three Bears Inn, how may I help you?"

"I was wondering if I could see a log of your guests in the past month – we're looking for someone."

The receptionist cleared her through. "Err, miss, I regret to inform you that the woman you were looking for last week has still not checked into our –"

"No, not her!" Yang interrupted, a bit too loudly. Her face was flushed at Pyrrha's confused look. "We're looking for a Penny Polendina – it's actually official business this time. Has she stayed here?"

Pursing her lips, the receptionist tapped a few keys into the computer, then turned to face Yang. "No, nobody by that name has stayed here. There was a Patricia Evans, though."

Sighing, Yang shook her head. "Not it, but thanks anyways. C'mon, Pyrrha."

The two hunters-in-training walked out, starting off for the next hotel a few blocks down. About halfway there, Pyrrha nudged Yang's shoulder. "You were looking for someone last week?" She asked, using a soft tone. The blonde brushed it off.

"Just someone my dad mentioned a few times. His old hghschool sweetheart, or something. Figured I'd surprise him one day and bring her back home." Pyrrha seemed to frown at this, a near imperceptible downward turn playing across her lips, but she accepted the answer after a beat, straightening herself up after a second.

"How thoughtful." She said appreciatively, and let the topic drop. Yang was grateful for that much. After some idle conversation about which hotel to hit up next, she was interrupted by her scroll buzzing. A glance over showed it was Blake, and, excited, she hastily unlocked the scroll and put it on speaker so Pyrrha could hear too. "Did you and Ren find Penny?"

Sounding a little upset, Blake gave her response. "No, unfortunately not. But we do have something more pressing – Ozpin called us all up to his office again. We should probably go. Maybe he found Penny…?" The black-themed girl trailed off uncertainly. "Anyways, we shouldn't take too long. Professor Goodwitch and Jaune, Weiss, and Nora are all already on their way, and Ren and I are wrapping up by the shopping district. See you guys in a few."

She slid the phone back into her pocket and ran a hand through her hair. "Guess we'd better be going then, huh?"

Pyrrha nodded.

**-Same time, Ozpin's office-**

Their team, Weiss thought bemusedly, was getting much too used to coming in here. Blake and Yang walked (more like stalked, honestly, with the agitated gait both were using) in looking more impatient than uneasy, and team JNPR still had that fresh fear of being taken to the highest point of the school to talk with the highest ranking person at the school.

Ozpin set his coffee down quietly when the students and Professor approached him. "Well then, I have some news."

"Good or bad?" Weiss shot back immediately.

He shrugged his shoulders. "There is no such thing. Just news. How you react will be your own choice."

"That makes it sound like it's going to be bad news." Nora pointed out cautiously, still lacking a filter even here.

"As I said, how you react determines the news' value." Ozpin replied, reinstating his previous sentence. "Now then, we might as well cut to the chase. You've been looking for Penny, correct?"

This caught everyone's attention. "Yeah, we have! Do you…know where she is?" Yang asked for the group as a whole. Ozpin nodded.

"That would be part of it, yes. Penny is currently under General Ironwod's care, and he has….declined, from letting her participate in this mission. That would be the other part."

Surprisingly, Glynda was the most indignant with this news. "He directly said no to a rescue mission? That stubborn military bas-"

"Glynda, there are children present." The headmaster interrupted smoothly, and Glynda scowled but held her tongue. It couldn't stop Yang's, though.

"That bastard! How are we supposed to –"

Ozpin stood from his desk, scaring just about everyone in the room, save Glynda and Ren, who merely took a slight step back. The headmaster cleared his throat. "Mr. Ironwood can be difficult, but not out of spite. He expressed every wish to assist your sister. However, you'd be right in one sense, and that's that well-wishes have no use in a situation such as this. It is my personal belief that he doesn't actually have Penny nearby, and that's why he refused."

"So what you're saying is, Penny is lost somewhere in Vale." Weiss said flatly, catching the line of thought he was expressing.

"She has a tendency to…wander." He agreed, taking a seat once more. "Furthermore, even though he will refuse to take back his decision, it doesn't necessarily mean Miss Polendina will abide by it. Glynda tells me you say she and your leader were close, yes?"

The remainders of team RWBY nodded. "They hung out sometimes." Yang replied easily.

"Then continue searching – tomorrow." He tacked on the last part as the student teams and even Glynda looked ready to quite literally run over each other on the way out of the office.

Weiss actually wanted to check and make sure she heard correctly. "I-I'm sorry, what?"

The headmaster gave them all a slight smile, just enough to make it seem like he was lauding his position over their heads but not enough to prove it. "You're exhausted and overstayed curfew three times now. You will be permitted to leave and continue searching tomorrow at ten. That should be plenty of time for you to get a reasonable amount of rest. In the meantime, team CFVY will continue tracking the bullhead to wherever it lands, and so on. A replacement scouting team will arrive at their location in two hours, and they will be replaced again by team CFVY at nine, just before you are allowed to search. You are dismissed. Sleep well."

He sent them off with a wave of his hand, and, albeit a little sulkily for a professor, Glynda escorted them all to their room and ensured that they would not be leaving until she came by to pick them up, or else there would be hell to pay.

Each of the three members of team RWBY sighed deeply, almost all at the same time, as the door shut behind them.

Weiss lay on her bunk with a blank expression. "This sucks." She said, suddenly more blunt than she was used to. On the other side of the room, both her teammates grumbled their agreements. A pinging sound from Yang's scroll broke the silence.

"…It's from headmaster Ozpin," She said slowly, and the other two girls practically flew out of their beds and over to Yang's top bunk.

"What's it say?" Blake asked quickly, before realizing how insistent she was being and lowering her head a bit sheepishly, but not apologizing for her impatience. Weiss wouldn't either.

Yang tapped the device until the message opened up, and read aloud. " 'Now that we can guarantee you will not be able to act rashly with this knowledge, I have convinced professor Goodwitch to let me show you these.' Well that's stupid, he's headmaster, he could've just shown us them anyway –"

"Yang, just open the file he sent!" Weiss snapped, almost tempted to take the scroll from her blonde teammate's hands."

"R-i-ight. Got it. Here, titled day two and day three. These must be the videos Glynda mentioned on our way up to Mountain Glenn…." She bit her lip nervously, but, upon glancing up at her agitated and concerned teammates, pressed the start button her hand had been hovering over.

The video starts off darkened, but then someone turns the lights on and reveals a white fang grunt leaning against a wall and, next to her, Ruby's unconscious form. Ruby seems more or less uninjured, save a little bruise by her jaw – probably how she got rendered unconscious, but it wouldn't be too hard for aura to heal.

The grunt looks from the camera to Ruby, and when he finally spoke up, his raised eyebrow was near audible. "You want me to _what?"_

From behind the camera, the female voice from the first video spoke up, annoyed. "I dunno, just, kick her or something. It's a ransom video. We gotta do s _omething_."

"Seems kinda pointless to me, but sure. Er.. eh." He kicked Ruby weakly, still glancing up at the camera occasionally. Behind the camera, someone faceplamed.

"God dammit. What do we pay you for?" Came a male voice.

"You _don't_ pay me…." The grunt replied, trailing off.

There was a scoff. "Well if we did we would stop." The female voice retorted. "Get outta here, I'll call over someone more willing to do it." The video cut out for a second, and then came back in the same room. Ruby was still propped up against the wall, but with another bruise on her chin, implying she'd gained consciousness and then was knocked out again. This time, Roman was next to her, looking irritated and taking a drag on his cigar.

"Once again, I have to do all the dirty work. What is this world coming to, can't even run a crime ring and smoke in peace…" he shook his head.

"Quit complaining and do something! By dust, you're such a priss about this." The girl voice came.

Roman rolled his eyes. "Whatever, I get the idea. 'hey Roman, you're evil, right? How about you kick a child for us on camera, not like your bounty can get any worse!' and I'm supposed to say 'gee what a great idea, I love kicking children!' You caught me there. It's the little things in life that I do so enjoy –"

"Just _do it already!_ "

"Fine." He delivered a hard kick to her side, and she whimpered and woke up. "There you go, done. If you'll excuse me I have places to be." The orange-haired criminal dropped his cigar onto the captive, and the video shut off.

"Torchwick…" Blake growled, reaching for the scroll like she could leap through and punch the man.

Weiss swatted the black-haired girl's hands away from the device. "Play the next one Yang."

Yang did so, her expression darkening as it began. Both teammates had already situated themselves away from the blonde in case her semblance were to start up in the meantime, but so far it was just a mild warmth and a few flickers of red in her eyes. Nothing was in imminent danger of being set ablaze.

Yet.

The next video was very blurry, as if it had been recorded on somebody's scroll. This time, there were white fang grunts everywhere. Ruby was hard to make out in the crowd, but the red cloak remained a dead giveaway. The crowd was rumbling, agitated and lively. In the center was Ruby and a grunt that had stepped out. He twirled some daggers excitedly, and made a rush at the young girl, which she managed to avoid.

The grunts surrounding the two knocked her back into the circle when she tried to escape, and she whirled around, throwing up her arms to shield herself from the daggers when she realized her adversary was charging her. Her aura seemed to take the hit in full, and she started up her semblance, dashing around the circle until she formed a small whirlwind, like she did back in the cafeteria during the food fight. She then slammed her whole body into the grunt's chest, knocking him to the ground and also into the legs of some of those in the ring surrounding them.

Someone in the crowd chucked a club, which she sidestepped and picked up to use as her own. She was looking a bit more confident, raising it above her head to knock the daggers grunt unconscious with, when the crowd grabbed her once more and got it out of her hands. She whimpered as Daggers Guy stood up again, now glaring at her.

"What a nasty little bird," He spat, taking a step closer. "Kicking up a wind like that. C'mere, birdy, I like to play with my food." He rushed again, and Ruby moved out of the way with her semblance, rose petals still littering the floor and causing him to trip.

"Get back here!" He growled as he realized his peers were laughing at his clumsiness. Ruby backed up, only to be shoved back into the circle. She looked like she was getting desperate, now that escape was clearly not an option. He landed another hit, which her aura absorbed again. With the way she was using her semblance now though, it was clear she would run low soon.

She made a halfhearted attempt to kick him, and he surprised everyone by grappling onto her leg and yanking her to the ground with him. Some shifting of the scroll this was being recorded on revealed that he was sinking claws into her leg, while she hit at him as hard as she could – which wasn't hard enough. She managed to pull his mask off, revealing him as some sort of big cat faunus, panther or otherwise, and he gave her a nasty grin. It was hard to hear over the once more excited crowd, but he said something crass and dirty to the young girl, and made as if to tug at her corset. She kicked him, and he made to slash with the dagger again. Her aura took it.

Again, except this time it left a little cut, and he grinned. Her aura was just about down. The crowd was loud and adrenaline was pumping, and so he brought it down across her face this time.

Now it was loud with surprise, and he raised it again, but somebody intervened, and the uneasy murmuring rose to a peak. The person recording it on their scroll crept up closer to Ruby, giving them a view of the damage – it looked just like the apparition had, except fresh and without any question of whether it was bleeding or not - and then turned away from when some very angry, green haired girl stalked into the room and took it from his hands. "What a fucking mess you've all made –" Was all she said before the scroll was turned off and the video stopped, too.

This time, Yang actually did snap her scroll in half.

Weiss paled and texted team JNPR (read, Pyrrha) quickly. " _Get the professor; if Blake and I are dead before you arrive, bury us together. Hurry."_

She leaped from the bed before it could catch fire, and made a tactful retreat underneath the desk. ' _God damn you, Ozpin…'_ She thought, wincing as the bunk bed to the side was broken. ' _Why are you making_ _ **us**_ _deal with this?'_

Scrambling under the cover of the desk beside her, Blake was probably thinking the same thing.


	8. Chapter 8

**-Day three: Hour twenty -**

**Time remaining: 52 hours-**

The hall was quiet, aside from the light thrum of the engine in the distance, the only indicator the bullhead was still moving. The doorframes rattled slightly, and a quick glance outside showed the left wing still scuffed up from that black-haired girl's frantic attempt to board the plane.

Emerald had propped herself up against the side of the 'hall' a good five minutes ago, and stared at the door across from her intently. Cinder had sent her to retrieve Neo and, if possible, the kid, too. She was just trying to figure out the best way to do it without pissing either side off. While her own combat abilities were nothing to sneeze at, Neo and Cinder both could surely kick her ass in a second flat. No, even less than a second.

So it was only natural that she proceed with caution.

Cinder was obviously the more important one to please here, because Cinder was always right and Cinder was always, always, _always_ was the most important factor in decision-making for the green haired girl. Emerald would stop at nothing to please her.

The problem piece here was Neo. While Emerald couldn't describe her feelings towards the mute as 'undying loyalty' like with Cinder, or even 'begrudgingly friends' like Mercury, she could at least recognize something. Call it a _desire_ for friendship. It wasn't there yet, but on some level she felt a fondness for the shorter girl, even if that level was only 'get your ass over here and help me deal with Mercury or I swear to dust I _will_ commit homicide'. She liked the girl more than Roman, anyways.

So to best please Cinder…and avoid displeasing Neo…she would need to plan her steps carefully.

Once she had devised a suitable strategy, she rapped on the steel door, even though she was pretty sure it wasn't locked. It would seem more official this way. The kid opened it, giving Emerald a blank stare that, frankly, frightened her a little.

Perhaps it was just the loss of an eye, but for some reason this kid just didn't seem like the one she'd met at Beacon. There was a different weight in her expression, or something.

Emerald cleared the thought and walked in, closing the door behind herself and fixing the younger girl with a half-glare in an attempt to get her to move as far away from her as possible. Instead, the kid remained just next to the door.

What a little prick.

Neo was now staring at her expectantly, so Emerald hurriedly dished out her request. "Ahem. Cinder wants to see you guys – if you don't want the kid to go she said it's fine, but she doesn't mind if you bring her along."

Neo nodded, gesturing to Ruby and then their pile of board games, which Emerald had totally missed when she walked in. She could assume it was Neo that was about to win their chess match though.

She took that to mean that she'd go and also bring the kid, and started for the door, the two shorter girls following her the whole way, not saying a word. It was expected of Neo, of course, but she kind of hoped the kid would say something to get her out of the awkward silence. Instead, she just looked around the hall and at all the doors. Seeing this, Emerald jumped on the chance to talk.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you. That door leads right out of the plane, kid, so unless you feel like being a little red splat on the ground, it's not the way to go."

Miffed, the younger girl shot her a glower that looked too much like pouting for the green haired girl to take it seriously, opting to stifle her laughter only because she thought Neo might be irritated at her for it.

Her tricolored comrade, however, was looking back at Ruby with an amused grin, twirling her parasol idly as she watched the red-cloaked girl sulk.

"You having fun with this?" She asked, and immediately regretted the action. The comfortable silence now gone, both Ruby and Neo's heads snapped up to look at her. Ruby was giving her the worst stink eye she'd ever seen, even topping the ones from those teenaged, entry level grunts who thought they were the toughest shit this side of Mistral because they had piercings on just about every single body part they had. Neo was tilting her head curiously, though there was a certain defensiveness to her posture, too.

"I mean with the kid, you know? I know we all _said_ it was a bad idea, but what I meant was, do _you_ think it's a good idea still?" She clarified, and Neo stared at Ruby for a long time, even going as far as to stop walking, causing the other two girls to awkwardly wait beside her – Ruby had even lost some of her bite in the confusion, and Emerald decided it must be the same girl, after all, because that face she made when she was confused – the scrunched up nose and the little head tilt – wasn't something that could be copied.

Eventually, Neo nodded, and abruptly began walking again. She didn't take the time to write a note to clarify or emphasize, but then, why should she have to?

She _did_ still outrank Emerald.

Trying to be polite for once, the green haired girl pushed the door open for the cockpit, allowing the two shorter girls in under Cinder's approving gaze. "Good, you brought Red, too. Good work Sustrai, you're dismissed. Send mister Black in here at your earliest convenience." She of course knew that 'at your earliest convenience' meant 'immediately', so she hurriedly nodded and shut the door behind herself, speeding for Mercury's room.

As she did, she wondered idly if she should ask Mercury to teach her that finger junk so she could talk to Neo easier. Sign language couldn't be _that_ much of a pain, right?

Clearing her head, she knocked on Mercury's door, not bothering with formalities like before. "Hey, Merc, get off your ass or the boss is gonna roast you!"

From behind the door, Mercury huffed dramatically, and she heard him walk up to the door irritably. "What the hell does she want, we aren't landing for at least another few hours! And even then, it's right back in the air for us. I'm not much good at skydiving, if that's what she's got planned for me…"

"Translator crap." Emerald explained bluntly.

Again, he huffed dramatically. "What a pain."

"You know," She started slowly, "You could teach me that junk and then you wouldn't have to bother." He raised an eyebrow at her. "And, of course, then I'd get to spend more time around Cinder!"

"What, like you aren't glued to her side already?" He scoffed sarcastically. "If you had it your way, you'd attach yourselves at the hip. I appreciate the sentiment, but the day you have something over me is a day I don't want to live to see. If you'll excuse me, I've got 'translator crap' to do."

She stuck her tongue out at him, to which he responded by flipping her the bird. She rolled her eyes. "Can't you just teach me anyways? I won't even bug the boss about it, I just wanna talk to little miss Ice Cream."

"What's in it for me?" He asked smugly, earning himself a nice, hard shove. It was mostly affectionate though. Or, what constituted as affectionate coming from Emerald.

"How about I get you something nice? More comics? Money?"

"Yeah, but will it be _yours_?" He retorted. Apparently, he wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than a personal belonging. Dumbass. The only shit she had that wasn't stolen were her clothes and her guns, and there was no way in hell he'd be receiving either.

So she countered, "Anything I can get my hands on is mine."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that why you're so interested in the boss? Bet you'd _love_ to get your hands on her."

Emerald stiffened with indignation. "Hey – you – get lost and see what the boss wants already, you pervert! Go, go, go!" She shoved him off down the hallway, and he laughed on the way down there.

"Love you too, honey!" He called out sarcastically. This time she flipped _him_ the bird, but her eye roll was entirely good-natured. She returned to her position of leaning on the hallway's wall, sighing deeply.

Yeah, she had to get Neo on her side or she'd go nuts.

**-Same time, in the cockpit –**

"So, I was hoping you could show me what sort of progress you've made with your protégée. Has she come around to it yet?"

"I won't work for you!" Ruby spat immediately, though she knew better than to take any sort of step towards Cinder. She'd seen how the woman fought before, and knew that if she could lose _with_ crescent rose, a fight without her precious sniper scythe would scarcely last for very long. She would be, as Emerald had put it so nicely a few minutes ago, a 'little red splat on the ground'.

Cinder actually had the nerve to laugh. "Oh, but you do have your work cut out for you, Neo. This will be an interesting project, won't it? And I wonder how she could ever react to knowing what awaits her…ah, but I digress. Come in, Black, by all means." The silver haired guy who had been leaning against the doorframe silently for a bit stiffened and walked in, obviously startled that Cinder had noticed him so fast.

Ruby watched him almost without blinking, mind rapidly working on explanations as to why he could be in here. He wasn't as invested in whatever this was as Emerald, she could tell that much, and he wasn't a big-shot like Torchwick, and certainly not a grunt…but why was he in here? She recognized him as Mercury, the other 'transfer student' from the week of the dance, but that didn't do much to help her figure out his relevance here.

When Neo started signing to him and he nodded every now and then, it was clearer. An interpreter.

"Says maybe progress would go faster if you guys stopped trying to cram your boots down her throat – what, don't look at me like that, it's basically what you signed – and she's on it, don't worry."

Cinder nodded slowly, though her eyes narrowed a little at the silver-haired boy. "Hmmm….Okay, both of you, out." She motioned to Mercury and Ruby and made a waving gesture. "Neo can write, and I'd prefer to know her _exact_ words….to make things more interesting. Take Red back to her room."

Mercury grunted his agreement, and pulled Ruby up by the arm. Neo watched her as the young huntress-in-training followed him out wordlessly. Neither said anything on the walk back to the stifling room, this time with no guards – they'd found the key they needed to lock the door properly, having lost it in the junk in the back of the bullhead previously - and she shuffled in under his gaze.

Just before he shut the door, he fixed her with a careful, evaluating look. She did her best to appear expressionless, even if it was a little hard. Finally, he turned away. "Just for the record, about Ice Cream -She doesn't appreciate losing."

She didn't gratify him with a response, instead slumping onto the floor and taking up her knees in her arms, rolling over as she held them tightly. When the door clicked shut, she mumbled to herself, trying to find something encouraging to think about. "Just hold on….Yang'll be here soon, 'n Weiss 'n Blake too…..All I need to do is be brave, everything will work out okay."

For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to believe it.

- **Day four, hour one –**

**-Time remaining: 48 hours-**

It was admittedly a little startling when the knock on their door came.

Despite the initial panicking last night, Yang 'calmed down' within about a half hour – meaning, she holed herself up in a pile of Ruby's belongings and cried her frustrations into those for about an hour before passing out. It was actually kind of pathetic, all things considered. Weiss made a pact with Blake to both pretend it never happened, and then they too drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

Yang didn't seem to wake up at the first knock at the door, so the white-haired heiress quickly answered it so that her blonde teammate wouldn't get up. From Ruby's hanging bunk, Blake rolled over and groaned an incomprehensible complaint, probably about the noise waking her up. She'd slept up there both because she didn't want to be on ground level and because Yang had collapsed her own bunk onto Blake's bed. Weiss suspected a third reason, that maybe Blake was doing the same thing Yang was in their leader's absence, but since she couldn't find any reasonable points to argue that on, she let the issue slip after only a brief mention.

At the door, team JNPR and professor Goodwitch were waiting. "Turns out that by 'tomorrow', the headmaster meant 'when the sun next rose'. We got into his office at about four AM, it was dark, and most importantly, we could have left hours ago – get your team prepared." Pyrrha explained shortly, before anyone else was given the chance to speak.

Blake all but fell out of Ruby's bunk, making the unfortunate mistake of landing directly on top of Yang, who'd been in the middle of the dorm floor with her pile.

JNPR and the professor didn't stick around after that, and Blake managed to peel herself off the taller girl quickly enough to only get a confused look from her. "Wha time'ss it..?" She mumbled airily.

"Past ten! Get up and get looking, oaf!" Weiss commanded, already slipping into the bathroom to get changed. While she did, she heard Yang and Blake scrambling to prepare themselves in the other room. Unlike herself, they had no qualms with changing clothes in front of each other – Weiss attributed that to public schooling and...whatever it was Blake did that allowed her to be so calm about getting changed near others. Weiss would never understand either of them.

Whatever the cause, both were ready when she stepped out of the bathroom, looking as determined as ever. The ride down to Vale was quiet – nobody had the time or patience for idle chatter, at least not right now, and they only talked to decide what the search teams would be this time, conferring with team JNPR over the scrolls.

They'd all decided not to go in partner groups, as that would leave Weiss out or with the Professor every time, but they also wanted to make sure different people were paired up each time – new combinations would (hopefully) help spawn new ideas of where to look, if enough chatter was exchanged between the two.

This in mind, all the pairs from last time were out as well. Weiss was paired with Ren, Jaune with Blake, Nora with Pyrrha and the Professor with Yang. While a few people were less than ecstatic - Blake silently bemoaned her own luck while the professor seemed more terse than usual in her agreement – the pairs went over well enough.

Weiss met up with Ren in front of a café, where he was already waiting, and wasted no time in listing off her plans. "What I've got so far is to just cover as much ground as possible – We don't need to be thorough, we just need to be everywhere in town. I've only seen her twice, but Penny seems to remember _everything_. Off handed comments, appearances – and she doesn't know not to interrupt people so I'm thinking if she sees someone from my team, she'll stop _us_ and then the whole thing will go over just fine. Make sense?"

He nodded slowly. "Works for me. Blake said she has red hair like Nora's and a pink bow, correct? Is there any other information I need?"

"Hmm…No, none that I can think of." Weiss replied off-handedly. "We should get started."

With no complaints, Ren gave a curt nod and walked alongside her, keeping his gaze steadily on the people to the left side while she handled the right. The silence was nice at first, but as the minutes ticked on to an hour, she found it less so. She'd been partnered up with Nora yesterday, and while the redhead seemed less rambly than usual, she still talked occasionally. Eventually, Weiss had to ask. "You're so quiet. How does a guy like you wind up with Nora for a best friend? I love her and all, but doesn't she ever get on your nerves or something?"

Ren didn't respond right away, still focused on his half the crowds they were moving past, but after a moment he turned to face Weiss, shrugging. "I didn't think we'd be friends at first. But after a while, you just get so used to people being there, you can't imagine it without them. We grew up together. " He answered the question plainly, and then went back to looking.

If nothing else, Weiss could admire his diligence, if not the brutal honesty. She opted against distracting him further, reminding herself that she had some searching to do as well, and it wouldn't do any good to get distracted and walk past Penny on accident, as unlikely as that seemed.

Still, the young heiress couldn't help but think on his response. It sounded sort of like herself and Ruby – she thought the younger girl was obnoxious at first, but once she got used to having her around, she found her to be less like a nuisance and more like a puppy, or something that didn't know any better. Without her knowing, the red cloaked girl had endeared herself to Weiss, and when she left….

"Dammit, Ruby…." Weiss muttered to herself. "You'd _better_ be alive, or I'll kick your ass in the next world…." She huffed and straightened herself out, crossing her arms as she did so. She'd have time to reflect and mope – she'd have that time later, after they'd found Penny and brought down the bullhead they were tracking.

…Was it just her imagination, or was Ren smirking when she glanced over at him?

**-Day four, hour three-**

**-Time remaining: 45 hours-**

Ruby, Neo had decided, after hours of supervision, was _not_ an easy nut to crack.

It took her two hours to coerce her into a game of cards again, and a few planned losses restored confidence in the younger girl – confidence in her abilities, Neo could only assume – which was enough to get her talking again, prattling on to her tricolored captor. It was still very defensive prattling, of course, but she was talking to her, and that was what mattered.

Now, if only she could talk back some way without the notes. Ruby could very easily just choose not to read them, and that wouldn't do if she was going to do any successful convincing. She could ask for someone's help and throw their voice, or perhaps construct someone's voice for her own use – just make a small, unnoticeable mirage and throw the sound through that – but that would be very taxing on her aura.

She snuck another glance at her red-loving prisoner.

The girl had accidentally dropped her set of cards, the hand splaying out onto the ground in plain sight, and was now loudly declaring that ' _that hand sucked ass anyways' ._ It was rare to hear obscenities from the younger girl, but it was hard to blame her. Frankly Neo was amazed Ruby hadn't tried to up and stab somebody with a spoon yet, or something ridiculous like that.

Neo opted against worrying about her lack of speech for now, since Ruby was in some degree of a good mood and would probably be willing to read whatever was thrown at her for now. And even later, curiosity would likely cause her to read notes regardless of mood. So surely, Neo didn't have as much to worry about as she might think at times.

Standing up, she went to fetch her notebook across the room, penning a short message to get a conversation rolling. If she could just get the wording right in this and the following messages, Ruby would play right into her hands, and she could accomplish some good old fashioned mayhem – hopefully enough to get her confused for the day, so tomorrow she could follow up with a proposition that would seem irresistible.

' _So, Ruby…have a moment?'_

The captive snorted. "When don't I? It's not like you guys are running a rec center or anything over here." That was a tad hostile, but Neo went along with it. She wouldn't apologize, but…

' _Oh, so you're bored, huh? Well in that case, it does fall to me to keep you entertained.'_ She slid the note to Ruby again, and the two began passing it back and forth for their conversation.

"…What do you mean by 'entertained'?" Ruby asked curiously, then shaking her head as if suddenly remembering she was supposed to be angry. "I bet it's something stupid." She said firmly.

Neo smiled pleasantly, and stood up once she finished her next note, leaving it on the floor behind her for Ruby to read once she left the room.

' _On the contrary. I think you'll like my presents for you.'_

The bullhead had just touched down a few minutes ago, and she knew the location well. Neo had a few stops to make before they got into the air again.

**-Day four, hour four–**

**-Time remaining: 44 hours-**

"…so I says to the guy, fuck you! An' he goes screaming off to whoever'll listen to his horseshit, tryin' to tell an officer nearby I was gonna recruit him, or something. So I took 'im out on the spot." A lackey who seemed just above the common grunts in rank boasted, and those around him laughed, long, spiteful laughs riddled with comments about his bravery and the stupidity of civilians.

Beaming with pride, he raised a glass of foul-tasting liquid and took a swig. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a girl; with long black hair and a set of perfect, pointed cat ears atop her head. He let out a low whistle, and the beauty smiled mischievously and rounded the corner, beckoning for him to follow. His friends urged him to do as such, snickering and shoving him from his barstool. " 'S gonna be a good night, sure as hell.." He stumbled after her, not deterred by his obvious drunkenness.

Once he rounded the corner, he found the object of his attractions to be across the room, by the guest beds. Chuckling, he followed behind her, enticed by the playful amber eyes.

He shut the door behind them in the spare room, giving a contented sigh before coming to notice something very, _very_ important was missing.

"What the hell? Where'd you go?!"

The click of a gun behind him was his only response. He turned around slowly, painfully slowly, ears flattened and eyes wide with terror. The girl held a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other. That sobered him up pretty quickly. He raised his arms in surrender.

"…I want some info about what's happening in the Fang . I suggest you talk _very_ quickly…my hand does get tired, kept on the trigger like this..."

"L-listen, we're both friends, right? You can talk without that there, right?"

She yawned in response, raising her sword arm to cover it and giving him a good, long look at the sharpened blade. He faltered.

And then he broke.

"What do you wanna know, man? I'll tell you anything! Honest!" He consoled himself with the knowledge that she was a faunus too, she couldn't possibly plan on going to the cops or the huntsmen with this. Probably just wanted to find a friend that got swept into the Fang. He wouldn't get discharged for that, right? Guy's gotta look out for himself, right? Yeah.

"That's more like it." She praised, voice laced with sarcasm. She motioned with the pistol, a clear indicator that he needed to get talking.

He swallowed nervously. "Wh-what do you want, anyways? What'd I do? Or is it somehtin else? The WF do something to you? I'm not an officer, I swear, I'm just a lackey!"

"You took something of mine. I want it back."

"Alright, alright! What do you want info on? C'mon, hurry it up, I'm gonna have a heart attack like this!" His voice was panicked, but the girl gave him a dry laugh.

"Wouldn't that be a shame." She replied flatly, then took a deep breath. "…What do you know about the captive Ruby Rose?"

Ten minutes later, the drunkard was tossed out the door in an unconscious heap, all the passerby having long since been thrown out by the police, that her temporary partner had so kindly fetched while Blake was occupied. A pair of cops moved to arrest the unconscious man.

Jaune looked on at the scene nervously, and soon met eyes with his temp partner. "You wouldn't have actually shot him, right?" It was obvious enough he had asked it for his own reassurance, but Blake took a moment to answer, glancing down at the man.

Glancing at the twin daggers sticking out of his belt.

"…Honestly? I can't say for sure." She answered softly. Stunned, her temporary partner just followed behind her like a lost, confused little dog. The black haired girl tried to take her mind off of it, calling her actual partner, the other blonde. "Yang. I've got word on Ruby's condition. Want to meet up by that inn you checked out last time?"


	9. Chapter 9

Once Blake had hung up, she turned to Jaune expectantly. "We're leaving. Get your weapon ready, there might be trouble on the way – Weiss says the Fang is pulling some sort of heist about three blocks from here. These guys were just lackeys that snuck off to have a drink instead of participate. "

Jaune nodded nervously. "Yes sir! Ma'am. I meant – uh, yeah, I got it. Just need to get the shield out, and then – AHHH! Blake! My sword's gone!"

"…Do you mean to say," Blake started slowly, shutting her eyes and speaking with thinly veiled agitation, "That you, an accomplished student from one of the hunter prep schools, that made it into _Beacon_ no less….. _Lost_ your own _weapon!?"_ She hissed, and Jaune gulped nervously.

"I had it with me when I went out to go get the cops for you! I swear I did! All I did was walk past a few people – oh, wait, I also stopped in by the coffee place to say hi to that one exchange student. She's just so friendly! But anyway, I only ever went into there and the police station, and I had my weapon with me, honest!"

Blake pinched her nose and took a deep breath. This was the second time this night she had _seriously_ considered murder. "Jaune. The exchange student you met up with….wouldn't happen to be that girl with the green hair, would it?"

"Yeah, it was her! Woah, you're really smart Blake. I bet you could be a psychi-ACK!"

"That was the girl I was talking about that pushed me off the plane! Were you even _listening_?!" She'd grabbed his shoulders and pinned him to the wall. And all he could think to do was shake his head no. Blake took another long, deep breath, and dropped him.

And then she picked up her scroll and called Yang again. "Change of plans, you meet me here. At this rate being indoors with police might be the only thing keeping me from brutally eviscerating tweedle dumb over here."

" _That bad, huh? Alright, me and Professor pouty-pants are on our way."_ A pause, presumably where Glynda said something. " _Hey, you can't give me detention for that!"_ Yang whined loudly. Blake took this opportunity to hang up, not wanting to intrude on a private conversation any longer.

Why in the hell did she think inviting Yang over here would help? "Goodwitch, you're my last hope. Please don't be insane by the time you get here, please don't b-"

"Uh, Blake? What are you muttering about?"

A blank stare. He backed off, and she got right back to muttering.

**-Day four, Hour four-**

**-Time remaining: 44 hours-**

"Hey, I'm back. I got the sword, it was a cinch. Mind me asking why you needed it so bad, though?"At this, Neo turned to face the green haired girl, waving her over. She pushed a hastily prepared thank you note into her hands and swiped the sword, glancing it over before turning to her newly appointed 'bodyguards'. Well, that's what she told Junior she needed them for, anyway.

Emerald had read over the note, and apparently she took notice of the guys too. "The hell are these guys doing here?" Her eyes narrowed. "You aren't trying to get rid of me, are you?"

Neo hurriedly shook her head. Times like this she wished she had more paper, that's for sure. Roman wasn't in any hurry with her new notebook and that meant for the time being she couldn't communicate. And she sure as hell wasn't asking Mercury to translate again. Or ever.

So instead she just motioned purposefully to the bullhead with the sword, then the guys accompanying her.

"You're bringing more people onto the ship?" Emerald's nose scrunched up. "It's not exactly an airship, y'know. We don't have _that_ much space."

Again, she shook her head. Neo couldn't think of any way to express what she meant so instead she just grabbed Emerald, signaling her guys to stop at the door of the bullhead, and yanked the door to Ruby's 'room' open. The girl looked up curiously, but again, without paper, Neo could give no explanation. She grabbed Ruby's wrist and pulled her out into the White Fang-controlled shipyard they'd landed in (the same one Ruby's team had first fought the WF in, if Neo remembered Roman's rant about the place correctly), with Emerald still in tow.

"What are you bringing _me_ out here for?" Ruby asked irritably, eye forced shut from the sudden brightness. Emerald seemed to be on the same page, though her eyes were adjusted to the light.

"Yeah, what she said!"

Ruby glowered at Emerald for a second, and the latter shrugged it off. "What, I figured you'd want someone with actual authority around here to help get your question answered."

"And being the teacher's pet of that fire lady is considered a position with 'actual authority'?" The crimsonette shot back snidely.

"You little shit!"

"Don't swear!"

"I'll swear whenever the hell I want!"

Taking her attention off of the two arguing girls for a moment once she'd gotten them all the way into the warehouse, Neo distractedly turned to face the henchmen she'd 'hired' with counterfeit money…which she was sure Junior had noticed right away. They were all looking at each other in confusion, so, finally deciding she'd had enough for one day, she just made a grab for one of their scrolls and tapped out her orders, showing them the screen to the one 'in charge'.

' _I want you to attack the girl when I give her the sword.'_

He shrugged. "Works for me."

Her next task was to get Emerald to supervise, since she had….other matters to attend to.

She tugged on the taller girl's arm, which it looked like she was getting just about ready to sock Ruby with anyways. Sheesh, whatever they were arguing about now, it was heated. Emerald glared viciously at Ruby before turning to read the message Neo had typed out.

' _Let her knock these guys around for a while with that sword. She'll probably attack you too, but the sword isn't anything special, and not her weapon of choice, so you'll be more than fine. If she tries running, knock her out. Guards have the exits secured, but I'd rather not see where she gets with that, ok? Intervene if they start beating her, will you? Thanks! 3'_

"Why do I have to babysit this brat?"

Ruby gaped at this news. "Why are you leaving me with _her_?"

Not paying any mind to either of them, she just tossed the sword in Ruby's general direction. She couldn't catch it, of course, since she probably could only barely see the thing in the first place, but she managed to pick it up just the same. "This is Jaune's sword….." She mumbled, just in time for one of Junior's men to charge her with a club.

Emerald stepped back to survey the scene, seeing the other girl fail to parry the blow. "On second thought, I guess someone should supervise."

But Neo was already on her way out.

Pushing the door open, she regarded the sword thrust in her direction calmly. This would be her other business.

"Where's Red?" The leader of this group seemed to enjoy shouting, huh? In any case, Neo had seen her swing that tote bag around enough to know that she wouldn't want to be on the receiving end. The sword was courtesy of the tall one – she couldn't be bothered to remember his name, only that he was likewise as strong as his leader.

She shrugged happily, tapping a finger to her chin as if she couldn't remember.

The other boy – the blind one, Neo remembered, - motioned to his mouth, probably intended for the leader but instead reaching the one with the ears. "If it's the neopolitain girl, she won't talk."

Shades Girl grinned devilishly. "Fine then. By this time tomorrow, her first words will be on her grave. Take her out, team!"

Ooooh, spicy. She'd have to remember that one, maybe not for herself, but still, to appreciate it.

She ducked under the crushing sword, and cast an illusion to the left. They could still see her, she knew that. But a few more….a few more should help her.

The faunus girl was smashing the illusions as they appeared, but she could never hope to keep up. Not with those fragments getting stuck in her boots.

Neo jumped into the air and did a flourish with her parasol, deflecting the blades from the blind kid. He grunted and fired a round, but obviously never hit his target. Sword Dude was probably going to need to be the first one out of commission, and Shades was loading the air with bullets.

No doubt Ruby had heard this. Emerald too.

No, seriously, that Emerald actually came out to check. God dammit.

The tricolored girl gave the blind one a good thrashing with the sword end of her parasol as Emerald tried to engage in combat with Shades. Once her opponent was out – courtesy of multiple laceration wounds, which the faunus girl was trying to tend to – Neo swept in by Emerald and made a throat cutting motion, read, ' _get the_ _fuck_ _back in there before backup comes'._

Emerald nodded hesitantly, and Neo irritably saved her ass from being hit with the machine gun/tote bag combo with her parasol held out in front of her like a shield. Emerald retreated and Shades started swinging at Neo, who ducked and moved out of range for each and every one.

Shades grunted with each swing as Sword Guy removed his weapon from a crater he'd made in the ground nearby from his latest miss. "Where," Swing. "The hell." Swing. "Is." Swing, shot, swing. "She."

Again, she shrugged sweetly, raising her parasol for some counterattacks. Now Shades had to dodge, but she threw a few punches where she couldn't find the time to swing that bag around again. After suffering one good hit from a right hook, Neo ducked around Shades' raised arm (for the follow up punch, presumably) and behind her, slipping her parasol out in front of the girl's neck and pulling back hard.

"Shit." She wheezed. ' _Yeah, you said it._ ' Neo agreed internally, as she strained to keep the struggling girl from striking back. She was getting blue in the face. This wouldn't take much longer, and then she could finish the job with the pointy end of her – Shit!

A stinging pain in her left shoulder told her she had forgotten someone.

Sword Guy actually retrieved his weapon in time. Neo grimaced and glared up at him.

But the sound of a bullhead taking off brought her thoughts back to the present. This would have to be finished later. She made a run for it and bolted into the warehouse without so much as a goodbye flourish.

Ruby was trying to fend off Emerald with the shitty sword, and apparently, doing a hell of a job. The henchmen were all bleeding on the floor as expected, and Ruby was running circles around Emerald.

"I could use some help here!"

Gee, she hadn't noticed.

Rolling her eyes, Neo set up a barrier. Ruby was fast, sure, but she was predictable. Running literal circles just screamed for a barrier to be made, for the sweet sound of skull cracking on a well-placed, unexpected barrier. Of course, skull cracking was off limits, but the barrier still had to show up, or dramatic irony would have failed her once more.

So Neo made one. Before Ruby could go in for another jab at Emerald, Neo phased into the space in front of her via a well-timed illusion, and gave her a hard knee to the stomach. Doubled over, Ruby still held the sword with a death grip, but Emerald was stronger physically, and wrestled it from her without issue. Neo helped Ruby up and then kept her in a tight hold around the waist as they approached their means of escape.

"Let go! Let go of me!" She tried to bite Neo's arm but got a mouthful of parasol instead. If she could stop struggling for ten seconds, she'd realize they were already in the air.

It was already much too late for her to escape, once again.

Neo relinquished her hold once Ruby seemed to have calmed down a little, and walked her down the 'hall' quietly, making sure her steps were soft. Roman was loitering around there and having a smoke, and Neo snatched the book out of his hands without even a backwards glance.

He didn't seem to be in the mood to make a snide comment about it, so she took it he'd had a run in with some of Ruby's rescuers too, probably on the way back. Probably that fire girl, if the singed jacket had anything to say for it.

The two girls made it back to the tiny room without incident. Ruby said nothing and moved to the corner to sulk. Neo, on the other hand, sat down with her new notebook like an excited schoolgirl. This one had lots of pages. She'd be sure to use the front and back.

Ruby did manage to notice the excitement. "What're _you_ so happy about?" _Oooh,_ sounded like she was crying a little. Maybe now was a bad time to look happy.

But Neo shrugged and got to writing a response. ' _I like writing. Why else would I be happy?'_

Ruby glanced over the paper, but didn't respond. Neo poked her after adding to what was written on the notebook: ' _Speaking of happy, did you like it?'_

"Like _what?_ " Ruby replied bitterly. "Being re-kidnapped? I feel useless, what's there to like about that?"

Neo shook her head. ' _No, not that. The sword, the henchmen. Your presents? I know how you think, about stuff like that. You're like me, I know you like fighting. Can't help it. Didn't you like fighting them off again? The rush of feeling like you might escape, didn't you_ _ **love**_ _that feeling? Those men are never going to fight again. You changed the course of events, their whole timelines…. There's a certain feeling you get from knowing that power came from you, no?'_

The other girl paused, and it seemed like something had dawned on her. "You're actually right...I really… _I_ did that….."

Neo shrugged. There was no reason to make Ruby call her bluff, but she could keep writing off of this. ' _And don't feel useless about your capture. In a way it makes you important. More important than anyone else on this ship, actually.'_

"It does?" Ruby asked cautiously, seemingly holding the conversation at arms' length. But she was still having it, so Neo could keep probing.

' _YES! It does! People are searching for you. Risking life and limb, all for a first year girl who got overexcited breaking into a base. Everybody wants_ _ **you**_ _, Ruby. They all want you to fight for them, because you have potential. For now, all Cinder is doing is wasting resources and blocking that potential.'_

"Blocking, huh…?" It was weird to see the younger girl concentrating too hard. She could almost see literal gears turning in her head as she tried to make sense of the information. Ruby's face soured after a second though, so she might lose her if she didn't make her offer.

' _Do you really think she cares either way what we do with you?'_ Neo wrote, keeping her expression neutral. This probably wouldn't work so soon, but with the way her time limit was coming up, she had to start pulling out the trump cards in the argument, so she'd start with this one. ' _She only wants to make sure nobody else can have you. She's clearly an idiot. I know what you need. It's a weapon and a hit list. Wouldn't that be easier than dealing with people? Why bother with them? Just you, your weapon, and a host of people that aren't making this world any better. I can get that for you, and get you out of here. All you have to do is say the word.'_

"No!" Ruby snapped, crossing her arms and huffing indignantly. "My sister and my teammates are coming for me and that's all I need to know. I don't need to make a deal to get out of here." Despite the statement, her gaze drifted back over to Neo, the questioning look in her silver eye boding well for future conversations. Even if today didn't work, she had tomorrow to convince her. It wasn't as ideal, but it was definitely something, and the best she could manage without pushing her luck too far.

She supposed it couldn't be helped that Ruby wasn't more willing, but she should still give her some time to think it over before trying again. ' _You don't miss a thing, do you? In any case, it'll still be a while until your back up arrives…keep me company until then?'_

Ruby shook her head no, and didn't respond, but she didn't move away when Neo sat down next to her.

**-Day four, hour eight-**

**-Time remaining: 40 hours-**

The search party had decided to meet up all together at the docks to exchange information. Yang was tapping away at someone's scroll with an agitated expression (hers was still broken), and Weiss knew she'd much prefer to stay far away from her, so she wandered over towards Pyrrha and Nora. "Hello again. I assume there wasn't any luck on your end, either?"

Pyrrha shrugged helplessly. "Neither of us have ever seen her, and she's never seen us. I shouldn't have expected to have any luck – apparently _nobody_ involved in this mission has had any. But you and Ren were the last to get here, so I guess you haven't heard."

"Heard what?" She replied cautiously, and Yang somehow managed to sneak up on her, having set the device down for the moment.

"Goodwitch and I couldn't capture Torchwick when we ran into him. Also, team CFVY caught the bullhead while they were landing and tried to ambush." The blonde muttered darkly. "It didn't go very well."

Weiss' eyes narrowed at the information. "Define 'didn't go well'."

"Fox is in the hospital and Velvet's going to have a limp for a few days 'cause all this glass-type crap got stuck in her feet." Yang said, glancing over at Ren to make sure he heard too and she wouldn't have to repeat anything. "They'll both be fine with aura, but they're out of commission. We lost track of the bullhead."

"Are Coco and Yatsuhashi alright as well?" Ren asked, head tipped to the side. He seemed calm enough, and Weiss was glad he asked for her, since she'd really rather not somehow get into an argument with her teammate – even if they had patched things up from the last one.

Thankfully, Yang nodded an affirmative. "They should be just fine. Coco says that neopolitan girl tried to strangle her with the umbrella she totes around, but Yatsuhashi stepped in before any serious damage was done. With her amount of aura, there isn't even a bruise any more."

"But they still lost track of the ship, and none of us have found Penny yet." Blake cut in irritably. All the searching students had gathered around the late arrivals Weiss and Ren, as Glynda took a phone call off to the side – from the substitute teacher she'd arranged for, she said.

"I'm sure we'll find her soon!" Nora consoled, reaching over to give the black-haired girl an overly-energetic pat on the back. She pulled away when Blake looked less than thrilled at the contact. "Sorry."

Weiss crossed her arms. "Well this is just great. Nobody knows _anything_? We only have forty hours now. That's less than two days, you guys." She pointed out, then sighed and cast an apologetic look to Yang. "I know you don't like to think about it, but it's time to make some plans. Back up or otherwise – whatever the case, we should be prepared for every outcome…even the ones that don't give us a happy ending."

Yang stiffened, but inhaled deeply and relaxed. "I don't need to have this argument right now. Besides, we'll be okay. Blake got some information, we called you, remember? If they're really thinking of taking Ruby up as a pet project or whatever, then we have more time, right? She could never actually abandon us, but she's smart enough to stay alive."

"You do have a point….." Weiss mumbled, already trying to reevaluate for that outcome. She got a bit worked up with thinking it over, that she didn't notice when the group's attention shifted.

Nora was pointing at something, and beside her, Blake's jaw had gone slack. "Hey, guys, is that….?"

"Un. Fucking. Believable." Yang looked like she was just about ready to blow a fuse.

"Sal-u-tations, friends!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Penny is so great. I love Penny. In other news, this chapter would have been longer, but I couldn't stand the thought of ending it anywhere other than where i did end it, heheh.


End file.
